128 3. IGUANID& 



ing under the branches of the creosote bushes. They are 

 very rapid runners, and are predaceous. Their coloring 

 blends admirably into the mottled shade where they lie in 

 wait for their prey. A ten-inch Cnemido'phorus tigris tigris 

 was taken from an eleven inch specimen. Their biting 

 ability was well proved upon the collector who picked up 

 one of the specimens which had been only wounded. One 

 bite tore through the skin of the first finger, causing a de- 

 cided flow of blood." 



19. Crotaphytus silus Stejneger 



SHORT-NOSED LEOPARD LIZARD 



Plate 9 



CrotapAytus wislizeni COOPER, Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., Vol. IV, 1870, 

 p. 71; YARROW, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 24, 1883, p. 53 (part); 

 COPE, Report U. S. Nat. Mus. for 1898, 1900, p. 255 (part). 



Crotap/iytus silus STEJNEGER, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 3, 1890, p. 105 

 (type locality, Fresno, California) ; STEJNEGER, N. Amer. Fauna, 

 No. 7, 1893, p. 170; VAN DENBURGH, Occas. Papers Cal. Acad. 

 Sci., V, 1897, p. 59; McLAiN, Critical Notes, 1899, p. 2 (part); 

 MEEK, Field Columbian Mus., Zool. Ser., Vol. VII,- No. 1, 1906, 

 p. 9; GRINNELL & CAMP, Univ. Cal. Publs., Zool., Vol. 17, No. 10, 

 1917, p. 152; STEJNEGER & BARBOUR, Check List N. Amer. Amph. 

 Kept., 1917, p. 46. 



Description. Head large, depressed, with rather short 

 snout. Its plates all small but largest and somewhat con- 

 vex on snout. Two to five longitudinal rows of shields 

 separating supraocular regions. Nostril large and opening 

 laterally in a round plate much nearer to end of snout than 

 to orbit. Superciliaries small but imbricate. Rostral plate 

 wide but very low. Supralabials of nearly equal size. A 

 long subocular plate. Ear-opening large, oblique, with 

 very slight anterior denticulation. Supraoculars and tem- 

 porals granular, as also gulars. Lower labials slightly 

 larger than upper, and bordered below by several series of 



