NO. 1174. HAIVAIUN LAND REPTrLES—STEJNECrER. 811 



ABLEPHARUS BOUTONII ' PCECILOPLEURUS^ (Wiegmann). 

 SNAKE-EYED SKINK. 



1835. — Ablepharus pordloplenruH Wiegmann, Nova Acta Acad. Cius. Leop.-Carol., 



XVII, i, p. 202, pi. XVIII, figs. 1-1« (type locality, islands at PLsaconia, 



Pern). 

 1851. — SciiicHS pUtf/iocephalxs Peron. in Dnm^ril's Cat. M(5th. Kept. Mus. Paris, p. 



191 (type locality, Van Diemen Laud). — Cruptohlephanis plagiocepludiis 



GiKARU, U. S. Expl. Exp., Herpet. (1858), p. 220, pi. xxvi, figs. 17-24 



("Otalieite and Sandwich Islands"). 

 1860. — Ahlepliarus nigropunctoins Hallowell, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1860, p. 487 



(type locality, Bonin Islands). 

 1887. — Ablepharus houtoitii var. poccilopleHruH Boulenger, Cat. Liz. Brit. Mus., 



Ill, p. 347. 



Various closely related forms, the status and geographical distribu- 

 tion of which have not as yet been definitely ascertained, have been 

 relegated as varieties, or subspecies, under AhlepharuH houtonii, and 

 there I am willing to leave them for the i)reseut. The Hawaiian sj^eci- 

 mens seem to agree best with the form described by Wiegmann, and 

 are named accordingly. 



De Freycinet collected this species in the Hawaiian Islands, his 

 specimens being in the Museum at Paris,' and the U. S. Exploration 

 Expedition brought specimens from Oahu, Kauai (No. 5706, U.S.N.M.), 

 and Hawaii (No. 5C74, U.S.N.M.). 



The frontal is separated froin the frontonasal in all the Hawaiian 

 specimens before me, the prefrontals in most cases forming a long 

 suture between the shields mentioned, except in one of No. 5706, 

 U.S.N.M., in which a small azygos shield is interposed between the 

 others, being in fact the detached anterior angle of the frontal. 



A much more interesting aberration is shown by No. 23507, U.S.N.M., 

 from Kauai, in which there are very distinct and regular supranasals 

 and postnasals, while in all the other specimens the nostril is pierced 

 in an undivided nasal. There is, however, in many of them a distinct 

 tendency to a suture back of the nostril, the first beginning of a sep- 

 aration of a postnasal, or the last trace of it. It is hardly to be 

 expected that the individuals inhabiting Kauai will show a similar con- 

 dition, which is probably only an individual (atavistic ?) variation. 

 The specimen agrees in all other respects with those from the other 

 islands. 



In sending a single specimen of this species from Waiawa, Kauai the 

 late Mr. V. Knudsen wrote me as follows: 



The skinks are as couixnon here as leaves on a tree; go along a cliff and you can 

 see them all over it. But catch one ! That is a difficult thing, for they are as quick 

 as a flash of light and do not go far away from a hole or crack in the rocks, out of 

 which nobody can get them. I have had six smart men with me for three days 

 promising them a dollar npiece, and all I can send is one glossy, smooth, greenish 

 thiug with tiny spots. 



1 Named for Louis Bouton, a French botanist. 

 ^Froin TtoiniXoi, mottled, and itXF.vpd, side. 

 sDumdril, Cat. M.'th. Rept. Mus. Paris, 1851, p. 191. 



