BARBOUR: NOTES ON THE HEKPETOLOGY OF JAMAICA. 297 



The uame Celestus is used here for the tbree members of the Anguidae, each 

 peculiar to Jamaica. The absence of an ungual sheath into which the claws may 

 be retracted is a character of generic value, as opposed to the presence of the 

 sheath in the true Diploglossi. 



The auguids of Jamaica have been described under a number of names, each 

 purporting to represent a distinct species. In the pages that follow, their number 

 has been reduced to three. It is extremely improbable that there are more forms 

 than this in an area the size of Jamaica. They probably at one time occurred all 

 over the island, though they are now, owing to mongoose ravages, of sparse occur- 

 rence in highlands only. The occurrence of all three species in Maudeville is good 

 jDroof that there was never any localized distribution for Celesti such as now exists 

 among the Auoles. 



To find the former in any numbers it is necessary to get a number of men at 

 work moving all possible loose stones. Pulling down stone walls is a very prob- 

 able means of finding them. They are quick in trying to escape, and when taken 

 in the hand they bite fiercely and struggle so that it is difiicult to keep the tail and 

 squamatiou undamaged. An open, wide-mouthed bottle of spirits should be im- 

 mediately at hand. 



The following quotation from page 77 of the "Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica" 

 is all Gosse has to say of Celestus. " In the swamps and morasses of Westmore- 

 land, the yellow Galliwasp {Celestus occiduus), so much dreaded and abhorred, 

 yet without reason, might be observed sitting idly in the mouth of its burrow, or 

 feeding on the wild fruits and marshy plants which constitute its food." Prom 

 the stomach of one of this genus isopods and cockroaches were taken and also 

 what I took to be remains of freshly devoured earthworms. 



Celestus occiduus (Shaw). 



Lacerta occiJua Shaw, Zoology, 1802, 3, p. 288. 



Diplcglossus occiduus Shaw, Boulenger, Cat. Lizards Brit. Mus., 1885, 2, p. 290. 



D. striatus Gray, Boulenger, Cat. Lizards Brit. Mus., 1885, 2, p. 289. 



D. hewardii Gray, Boulenger, Cat. Lizards Brit. Mus., 1885, 2, p. 291, pi. 17. 



There can be, I think, no doubt whatever that the species Shaw described is 

 a rather variable one characterized by its scales being both keeled and striate, 

 which must include the other species mentioned above. Three specimens taken 

 in Maudeville, Jamaica, show that size is valueless as a means of separation. Scale 

 rows then vary from 40 to 56, and the colorations include the phases which Bou- 

 lenger has described for his three separate species, and one remains to be added, 

 viz., rich red brown, with longitudinal black comma-like marks on the back, and 

 white spots on the sides. Sides of neck black ; the black area divided into squares 

 by white lines. 



This, the largest and most conspicuous member of the genus in Jamaica, has 

 been the one which heretofore has come most often to herpetological collections. 

 It is now, however, very rare, the mongoose being without doubt responsible for 

 its reduction in numbers. 



