The Horned Lizards of the United States 



Dr. R. W. Shufeldt 

 Washington, D. C. 



We have in this countrv' a great many different genera and 

 species of lizards, and they range all the way from the famous 

 Heloderma to the limbless Glass "snake" and the Worm lizard of 

 Florida. As a group of the Reptilia they offer a most interesting 

 one for study and observation, and this applies particularly to that 

 most remarkable assemblage of forms seen in the genus Phryno- 

 soma, which long ago was created to contain our Homed lizards. 

 Most people have come to know these as "Homed toads," and they 

 are very generally referred to as such; while as a matter of fact 

 they are no more to be classed with the toads than Snapping ttu-tles 

 are — indeed, with not so much reason, for Homed lizards and 

 Snapping turtles both belong to the Reptilia, while toads are repre- 

 sentatives of an entirely different class of animals, namely the 

 Batrachia. We should do all in oiu- power to prevent the perpetua- 

 tion of such erroneous ideas as this, and the best way to do so is 

 by calling things by their right names; for, as names and forms are 

 ever associated, the giving of the name toad to a creature when it is 

 in truth a lizard, simpl}' makes for biological confusion to say the 

 least, and such misconception in any instance is fatal to the 

 progress of science. Then, too, when one really comes to compare 

 any of our seventeen different species and subspecies of Homed 

 lizards with a specimen of our common toad, the resemblance is, as 

 a matter of fact, very slight. So, to make any such comparison 

 here would be only a waste of time and valuable space, with no 

 material benefit to any one. Out of the seventeen species men- 

 tioned, four occtir only south of the Mexican Boundan,^ line. 



Recently I had in my possession a niunber of living specimens 

 of the Homed lizards, and I succeeded in making some excellent 

 photographic negatives of them ; a print from one of these has been 

 reproduced as a cut for the present. article. These specimens were 

 of the species known as the Texas Homed Lizard {P. coruiitum) , 

 which is a large and handsome form, and the one to which probably 

 the misleading name of "Homed Toad" was first given. It occurs 

 practically throughout the entire state of Texas, northwest to 

 Nebraska, eastward from Galveston to western Arkansas, and 

 southward through the Sonoran and Chihuahuan states of Old 



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