188 Mr. A. W. E. O'Shaughnessy on Norops. 



case, lie adds, the latter attain only to the nasal aperture 

 (Nasenoffnung ; he probably means ear-opening, Ohroffnung). 



We have already seen that Berthold mentions expressly the 

 first proportionate length as distinguishing the auratus of 

 Daudin, thereby, indeed, supplementing the description of 

 Dumeril and Bibron in the one point in which it fails, and the 

 other, no less expressly, in his description of 12-striatus. 



It is curious that Dr. Peters should remark at the end of his 

 notice, " It is probably this species which the Smithsonian 

 Institution received from Paris as JSF. auratus" referring, of 

 course, to the specimen which Dr. Hallowell mentions, and 

 which, as we have seen already, both he and Cope regarded, 

 very properly, as the true auratus. 



The following is a description of the genus Norops and" its 

 species, with their correct synonymy : — 



Norops, Wagler, Nattirliches System der 

 Amphibien, 1830. 



Skin beneath the neck forming a salient fold, a sort of 

 small throat-pouch without denticulations. Palate not toothed* . 

 Femoral pores none. Toes slightly or not at all dilated, with 

 keeled rhomboidal scales on each side, and a series of smooth 

 imbricate transverse plates beneath. Scales of the back and 

 belly keeled, imbricate, disposed in longitudinal rows, of the 

 sides very small, round or oval ; those of the belly are slightly 

 smaller than those of the back. Back and tail without crest. 

 Tail moderate, not prehensile. 



1. Norops auratus. 



Anolis auratus, Daudin, Suites a Buffon, An x. ; Hist. Nat. des Reptiles, 

 torn. iv. p. 89. 



Norops auratus, Wagler, Natiirliches System der Amphibien, 1830, p. 149; 

 Wiegmann, Herpetologia Mexicana, pars 1, 1834, p. 16; Dumeril et 

 Bibron, Suites a Buffon, Erpetologie Generale, 1837, torn. iv. p. 82, 

 pi. 37. f. 2 ; Berthold, Ueber verschiedene neue oder seltene Reptilien, 

 &c, Gottingen, 1840, p. 6 ; Hallowell, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philadel- 

 phia, 1856, p. 222. 



Anolis tropidonotus, Peters, Berichte iiber die Verhandlungen der Akad. 

 Berbn, 1803, p. 135. 



Head, as well as snout, covered with strongly keeled scales ; 



* Dr. Gray (Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum, 1845, 

 p. 207) says, " Palate toothed." Every writer since Daudin, however, has 

 confirmed this, the principal character upon which the separation of 

 Norops from Anolis has been based. 



Dumeril and Bibron say, " Quoiqu'il en soit, les Norops constituent un 

 petit gioupe generique assez nettement caracterise par l'absence complete 

 de cretes dorsales et de pores femoraux." Now Anolis, likewise, has no 

 femoral pores, but has teeth on the palate. 



At the date at which Dr. Gray's Catalogue was compiled there was 

 no specimen of Norops in the British Museum. 



