•6o AlvKXANDliR G. RUTHVEN 



IJpar) this lizard is generally abundant on the shores, freqnentinjj the 

 branches overhanging the water, from which they throw themselves when 

 alarmed. In the regions where the streams are shallow the species is appar- 

 ently less abundant, does not have this habit, and, while occurring along 

 the streams, seems to be more generally distributed. At Riohacha old and 

 young individuals were fovmd in the desert scrub at a distance of a mile 

 from water, in this habitat running about on the ground like the large 

 Ameivas. 



Tiipinamhis nigropiinctatus Spix. — One specimen from Don Diego (M. 

 A. Carriker). Reported by Mr. Carriker to be not uncommon in the cacao 

 plantation at Don Diego. It does not seem to be recorded that this lizard 

 is a scavenger. The natives on the Demerara River, British Guiana, cap- 

 ture them on fish-hooks baited with flesh. 



Ameiva arneiva maculata (Fischer). — Santa Marta to Agua Dulce; 

 Las Pavas (observed) ; Valencia; Valle de Upar; Fonseca; Loma Larga ; 

 Arroyo de Arenas ; Riohacha. On San Lorenzo found on the desert and 

 in dry woods to 2,200 feet, above 2,200 feet only in the clearings. In the 

 other localities taken in the flood-plain forests. 



This form is close to Ainck'a auieiva, as stated by Barbour and Noble,""'^ 

 .and the large series obtained shows that most of the scale characters given 

 by these writers are not sufficient to distinguish the subspecies. The prse- 

 anals are usually as much enlarged as in the typical form, and, while the 

 shields on the under side of the tibia are usually a little smaller and more 

 numerous in maciilata, the range of variation in these scales is slight and 

 overlapping in the two forms. The best scale character is the width of the 

 occipital plate, which is quite constantly much less in ameiva, being usually 

 less than one-half the greatest width of the adjacent scale in ameiva and 

 with few exceptions from two-thirds to the entire width of the adjoining 

 scale in maculata. Barbour and Noble state that ameiva has two pairs of 

 frontoparietals, but this must be an error, since in a large series two pairs 

 ■occur only as an abnormality, and this abnormality is also found in maculata. 



Ameiva bifrontafa divisiis (Fischer). — Salamanca Coast and Santa 

 Marta to 2,200 feet; Aracataca and Tucurinca (Rehn and Hebard) ; Valle 

 de Upar; Fimdacion. A common ground lizard in the localities mentioned. 



The subspecies A. b. divisus^^ exists in the typical form from the coast 

 at Santa Marta to Fundacion. In a large series of specimens not one has 

 the row of granules between the supraoculars and frontals continued ante- 

 rior to the anterior border of the third supraocular. Of a series of eight 

 specimens taken at Valle de Upar six are like the Santa Marta specimens 

 and two have one granule anterior to the suture of the second and third 

 supraocular. (See p. 62.) Xo representatives of the species were found 

 between Fundacion and Valle de Upar. It is possible that the Valle de 

 Upar form will be found to be closer to typical bifrontafa than to the sub- 

 species dii'isus or intermediate, but this is not apparent from the material 

 at hand. Also the writer is not certain of the identity of the Don Diego 



31 Bui. Mus. Comp. ZooL, LIV, p. 467. 



22 See Ruthven, Occ. Papers, Mus. of ZooL, Univ. of Michigan, No. 2, 1913. 



