gakman: the keptiles of easier island. 11 



mon. Posteriorly on the tail the spots of black become less dark and more fused. 

 The lower surface of the tail is white. In several individuals there is an indefi- 

 nite band of brownish from eye to eye across the forehead ; in some one or two 

 less definite bands cross the snout. On Easter Island specimens the bunches, as 

 we may call the limy swellings at each side of the neck, are large and apparently 

 made of two portions, a small posterior and a larger anterior, which latter on some 

 of the larger examples extends somewhat below the throat. In the young these 

 bunches are not to be seen. Specimens from Samoa, collected by Dr. W. 

 McM. Woodworth, differ from the preceding in lacking the spot on the occiput 

 and in having the bunch at eacli side of the neck smaller, rounder, nearer the 

 shoulder, and farther from the ear. Others from the Fijis show the neck bunches 

 still further reducedin size, so much so as to make them hardly perceptible. One 

 from Mangareva is much darker than the Easter Island representatives ; it has 

 fewer transverse bands on the body, but has the occipital spot and those above 

 the bunches ; the latter are small and placed far back ; on the snout there is a 

 mark shaped like a horseshoe, open forward ; a band from eye to eye curves for- 

 ward, and behind it there is another curving backwat'd. Our specimens from 

 Oahu confirm the remarks made by Dr. Stejneger as to being more robust; they 

 indicate existence of a probable variety (^roseus). Those from the Marshall Islands 

 are like them. Individuals from Oahu have very large bunches on the neck, ex- 

 tending from shoulder to ear, and towards the nape and middle of the throat ; they 

 have numerous and large black spots on the middle of the back (old specimens, prob- 

 ably). Such specimens were described by Cope, 1868, under the name Peropus 

 roseus ; at most they represent only a variety of Lepidodactylus lugubris D. & B., 

 1836. Gehyra oceanica, hitherto not credited to the Hawaiian fauna, was also 

 secured on Oahu. Maui specimens of L. lugubris are less robust, are smaller, and 

 the bunches are like those of Easter Island, small and far back. On one of them 

 the bunches are hardly noticeable. The spots are absent from the middle of the 

 back, but are distinct above the shoulders and hips. On an Ebon, Marshall 

 Islands, specimen the bunches are in longitudinally connected groups of three ; on 

 others from Apaiang, Gilbert Islands, the bunch is near the shoulder and far from 

 the ear. 



The figure of the type furnished by the " Voyage au Pole Sud," Plate 1, Fig. 1, 

 does not present a very correct idea of the markings, as but few are indicated. 

 Those shown are situated as in the greater number of individuals, yet on those 

 which show the spots so distinctly there is, on most examples, a larger number of 

 markings that are quite as characteristic which are not traced in the figure. The 

 drawing shows the two black spots on the neck, a couple of the spots on the base 

 of the tail, a small spot on the occiput, and a number of dark spots irregularly 

 scattered over the body ; it has none of the six or seven transverse bands of brown- 

 ish edged with light between shoulders and thighs and continued in the ten or 

 more bands across the tail, in each of which there is usually a dark spot at each 

 side of the vertebral line. 



The Easter Island form appears to be more closely allied with the Hawaiian than 

 with those obtained from islands more directly to the westward. 



