808 PROCEEDIXGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxi. 



in the Paris Museum, according to Dumeril. Dr. Otto Finsch collected 

 it ou Yaluit Island and on Ebon Island (Marshall Islands), Kushai 

 (Carolines), and in Tarova (Gilbert Archipelago), according to Peters.' 

 Boulenger records it from Celebes, the Moluccas, New Guinea, Admi- 

 ralty Islands, Solomon Islands, New Hebrides, and many others. Curi- 

 ously enough it seems to be absent in New Caledonia. 



The name U. lessonii was afterwards bestowed upon the species, as 

 cyamirtis was believed to lead to confusion, there being a number of 

 species which all have a blue tail. 



Lesson says that the natives on Tahiti, where it lives in the habita- 

 tions, call the species Emo, a name which he also attributes to a gecko, 

 Gehyra oceanica. 



The coloration of the Hawaiian specimens, whether from Oahu, Molo- 

 kai, or Hawaii, is fairly uniform, with such variations as are mainly due 

 to age, differing, however, to some extent from that of typical E. cyanura 

 as described by Dumeril and Bibron. According to them, and in con- 

 formity with the original figure,- in the latter a golden-yellow stripe 

 follows the median line of the liead, neck, and body to the tail; two 

 lateral stripes united on the snout with the median line soon separate 

 from it, passing over the superior border of the orbit and the sides of 

 the body to the origin of the tail. All the Hawaiian specimens before 

 me differ from this description. In only one of them does the median 

 light stripe start from the snout, namely, in the youngest, the specimen 

 from Molokai (No. 23517, U.S.N.M.). In the largest specimen (No. 

 23448, U.S.N. M.) from Hawaii there are no light stripes. The stri]>es 

 start in all the others on the frontoparietal, leaving a dark-brown spot 

 in the middle of this plate, and then separating on the parietals into 

 the median and the two lateral light stripes. Moreover, the stripes do 

 not extend to the base of the tail, but disappear gradually about the 

 middle of the body, except in the very young specimen mentioned above, 

 in which the uTediau stripe only is clearly defined to the tail. Whether 

 we have to do in this case with a distinct color variety, or whether age 

 may account for the difference, can only be decided by comparison with 

 large series of individuals from the other Polynesian islands. 



Bescrijytion.—No. 23448, U.S.N.M. Adult; Hawaii; collector, H, W. 

 Henshaw. Rostral extending some little distance on the snout above 

 in contact with nasals, supranasals, and the frontonasal; nasal small, 

 consisting chiefly of a somewhat raised semilunar rim bordering the 

 anterior half of the comparatively large nostril; behind nostril a tri- 

 angular postnasal in contact with first supralabial, first loreal, and 

 above with a very narrow supranasal, which borders the frontonasal 

 and entirely shuts it out from contact with nasal and postnasal; fronto- 

 nasal rather large, broadly in contact with rostral, supranasals, pre- 

 frontals, and also, but more narrowly, with first loreals and frontal; 



1 Sitz. Ber. Berlin Natnrf. Fr., 1881, p. 72. 

 2Zo0l. Voy. Coquille, Kept., pi. iv, tig. '2. 



