1890.] HELODERMA SUSPECTUM. 151 



Table (continued). 



Larger one. Smaller one. 



Greatest width on top of head .... 4*2 ^^'O 



Between the eyes 2*7 2*1 



Between the nostrils 1"2 0*7 



From chill to commissure of gape .. 3*8 2"8 



Middle toe, fore foot '. 2*0 1'5 



Middle toe, hind foot 1'7 1'3 



Vent to tip of tail 12-5 9-0 



Mid-girth of tail 8-1 5-0 



Chin to vent 28-8 20-2 



From armpit to groin of same side . . 17'1 12*5 



Width of vent M 07 



Coloration. — As I have elsewhere said, the two colours of Helo- 

 dervia suspectum are black and some shade of yellow, orange, or 

 salmon. No two specimens of this Lizard ever agree either in 

 point of coloration or in the peculiar markings. Sometimes the 

 black is intense and shiny ; sometimes dull and almost of a brownish 

 tint. It always brings out tlie two tints brilliantly to wet the 

 animal in water. As a rule the muzzle, chiu and throat, cheeks, 

 and fore part of the head on top are jet-black ; occasionally a ^ew 

 yellow scales will be distributed over tlie throat, and in my larger 

 specimen there are over each eye two pale yellow tubercles. On the 

 top of the head an imperfect cross can generally be made out, the 

 arms of which are composed of a single row of tubercles, broken 

 at the intersection, and with its anterior extremities reaching as far 

 forward on either side as the regions over the roofs of the orbits, 

 while the posterior ends extend back as far as the angles of the jaw. 

 A few scattered black tubercles usually are to be found in the area 

 between the entering angles of this cross. Passing next to the 

 neck and body we find the markings of a very different character. 

 Assnming the yellow or orange to be the ground-colour, we discover 

 that these parts are generally surronnfled at irregular intervals by 

 some four or five broad, fantastic, transverse bands, composed of the 

 black tubercles on the dorsal aspect and the flatter scales on the 

 nether parts. These bands are not of an unbroken black colour, 

 but have both irregular borders and bizarre figures of the orange or 

 yellow ground-colour over their internal areas, composed for the most 

 part of blotches, bars, and hieroglyphical patterns, and sometimes 

 the figures of these black bands may become confluent with each 

 other. The colours are duller and paler on the ventral parts than 

 they are above, although the general configuration still prevails, with 

 rather more marked confluence of the banding. In my larger speci- 

 men there are also found in the transverse orange interspaces a few 

 scattered and small isolated spots of black, composed of, as usual, a 

 few black tubercles which have merged at these localities. Generally 

 the tail is marked by alternate bands of the same colours found upon 

 the body ; these are commonly four or five in number, of about equal 

 widths, and arranged so as to have the tail terminate in a black tip. 



[5J 



