108 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Elgaria formosa, BAIRD and GIRAKD, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., VI, 

 1852, p. 175 (type locality California); GIRARD, U. S. Explor. 

 Exped., Herp., p. 206, pi. XXIII, figs. 10-17. 



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 some- 

 times swollen. Rostral plate large, and rounded in 

 upper outline. Behind it, on top of head, a pair of 

 small internasals, a pair of frontonasals, a small or 

 moderate-sized azygous prefrontal, a pair of prefrontals, 

 a large frontal, a pair of frontoparietals, two parietals 

 with an interparietal between them, and a pair of occip- 

 itals separated by from one to four, usually by two or 

 three, interocci-pitals. Two series of (5 and 3) supra- 

 oculars and a series of small superciliaries. Upper 

 temporal scales usually 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 surfaces and sides of neck, body, 

 and tail rhomboidal, slightly oblique, strongly keeled, 

 strengthened with bony plates, and arranged in both 

 transverse and longitudinal series. Number of longi- 

 tudinal series on body sixteen (rarely 14| or 18). Num- 

 ber of transverse series between occipital plates and 

 back of thighs varying from forty-three to fifty-two 

 (average 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 dorsals; smooth, imbricate, and arranged in 

 twelve (or 13) longitudinal series. Number of scales 

 from symphyseal plate to anus varying from fifty-eight 

 to sixty-four. 



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



