96 COPEIA 



ever grows to be" according to Shufeldt. Now this 

 statement needs further verification, as I have seen 

 and examined an occasional example 6 inches long, 

 and it is quite possible one may even exceed 7 inches. 

 In my experience the average size is from 3 to 4 

 inches. Further Shufeldt says of the figure, "it gives 

 38 scales instead of 3.5, and 12 dorsal rays instead of 

 13; it has too many anal rays." This is entirely mis- 

 leading, and the artist who made the figure was prob- 

 ably accurate. In truth the figure shows 3 simple 

 and 10 branched dorsal rays and 2 simple and 6 

 branched anal rays. One also gathers a false impres- 

 sion that the scales would be 35, but I find variants 

 with 40, and do not doubt they may even exceed this. 

 These notes were made with the idea of placing 

 before ichthyologists an obscure account of a sup- 

 posed new form of one of our well-known fishes, as 

 it appears upon comparison with some of the facts 

 as brought out with adequate material. 



Henry W. Fowler, 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



SYSTEMATIC NOTE ON LOWER CALI- 

 FORNIA LIZARDS. 



A collection of reptiles, made in Lower Califor- 

 nia in 1911 by an expedition under the auspices of the 

 American Museum of Natural History and the 

 United States Bureau of Fisheries (Charles H. 

 Townsend, leader, on the U. S. S. Albatross), re- 

 veals some interesting records for this peninsula. 

 Among these Crotaphytus copeii Yarrow, 1882 

 (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. Vol. 5, p. 441), has not been 

 considered valid, Cope, Van Denburgh and Ruthven 

 all relegating it to the synonymy of Crotaphytus wis- 

 lizenii Baird and Gerard. Stejneger has not ex- 

 pressed an opinion regarding its status, the only men- 

 tion being a noncommittal sentence in his differen- 

 tiation of the new short-headed species of the Pacific 

 Region, Crotaphytus situs (N. A. Fauna, No. 3, p. 



