﻿14. GERRHONOTUS 441 



Description. — Body long and rather slender, with short 

 limbs and very long tail. Head pointed, with flattened top 

 and nearly vertical sides, its temporal regions sometimes 

 swollen. Rostral plate large, and rounded in upper out- 

 line. Behind it, on top of head, a pair of small internasals, 

 v. pair of frontonasals, a small or moderate-sized azygous 

 prefrontal (rarely replaced by a pair of small plates), a pair 

 of prefrontals, a large frontal, a pair of frontoparietals, two 

 parietals with an interparietal between them, and a pair of 

 occipitals separated by from one to four, usually by two to 

 three, interoccipitals. Two series of (five and three) supra- 

 oculars, and a series of small superciliaries. Upper tempo- 

 ral scales often keeled, but lower two or three series smooth. 

 Upper labials much larger than lower. Below latter, two 

 series of large sublabial plates, lower much the larger. 

 Gular scales imbricate and smooth. Scales on upper sur- 

 faces and sides of neck, body, and tail rhomboidal, slightly 

 oblique, strongly keeled, strengthened with bony plates, and 

 arranged in both transverse and longitudinal series. Num- 

 ber of longitudinal series on body 16 (rarely 14, 14 2^2, 

 16 2-2, or 18). Number of transverse series between occi- 

 pital plates and back of thighs varying from 43 to 52 (aver- 

 age in 63 specimens, 48.5). A band of granules along 

 each side from large ear-opening to anus, usually hidden 

 by a strong dermal fold. Ventral plates about size of dor- 

 sals, smooth, imbricate, and arranged in twelve (or 13) lon- 

 gitudinal series. Number of scales from symphyseal plate 

 to anus varying from 58 to 64. 



The ground color above, in adults, is gray, olive, yellow, 

 green, brown, or almost black, with numerous irregular 

 black or dark brown cross-bands, which, however, usually 

 are broken up into two lateral series of vertical bars and one 

 median series of irregular spots or blotches. The ground 

 color of the longitudinal band between the median and lat- 



