BARBOUE: notes on the HERPETOLOGY of JAMAICA. 299 



Mabuia sloanii (Daudin). 



Scincus sloanii Daudin, Reptiles, 1804, 4, p. 287, pi. 55, fig. 2. 

 Mahouya agilis Gosse, Nat. Sojourn in Jamaica, 1851, p. 75. 



This little skink, which is known to the negroes by the quaint name of " snake- 

 waiting boy," is now one of the rarer members of the island fauna. Along with 

 the other ground-inhabiting creatures of the lowlands near the coast this has been 

 preyed upon extensively by the mongoose. About Kingston we procured three 

 examples, and these were the only ones seen during our stay on the island. 

 They seem to replace the so-called " galliwasps " (Celesti) in the lowland areas. 

 Indeed, the negroes about Kingston have noticed this, and I was told that 

 in the vicinity of the town there were no " galliwasps," while in the highlands, 

 where they were found, one did not get the skink. The native name is given 

 them because of the supposition that they follow snakes, as the jackal is often 

 spoken of as the lion's follower. 



Gosse reports the species as abundant, while Duerden in the Gleaner wrote, 

 " Now occasionally found about Kingston." 



Boulenger has tersely stated the distribution of this form as " West Indies 

 south of 20°." This area, however, includes the ranges of several distinct but 

 imperfectly known species. This form is doubtless confined to Jamaica. 



Typhlops lumbricalis (Linne). 



Anguis lumbricalis Linne, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1758, 1, p. 228. 



Typhlops lumbricalis Gosse, Nat. Sojourn in Jamaica, 1851, p. 262-267. 



This species is one spread generally over the island, though owing to its bur- 

 rowing habits it is not often seen except by lifting rocks. Nearly all of tiie fifteen 

 examples we took were under stones at Bath, Mandeville, and near Kingston. 

 Mr. A. E. Wight has sent eight specimens, all from near the mouth of Bog River, 

 in the vicinity of Port Antonio, northeast Jamaica. His field notes show that he 

 caught one of these just as it was crawling into an old stone wall. Gosse records 

 finding the eggs in the nests of Termites, a habit, then, which this species has in 

 common with a number of African congeners. 



Its range geographically extends from Abaco Island in the northern Bahamas, 

 through the Antillean groups to British Guiana. 



Tropidophis maculata (Bibron). 



Leionotus maculatus Bibron, Sagra's Hist. Cuba, Reptiles, 1843, p. 212, pi. 24. 

 Leionotus maculatus Gosse, Nat. Sojourn in Jamaica, 1851, p. 324-325. 



A single typical example taken near Kingston is the only specimen of this 

 species which is at hand. As Boulenger's descriptions (Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus., 

 1893, 1, p. 112, 113) show, this form, the only one known from Jamaica, is easily dis- 

 tinguished from the Cuban (^T. pardalis Gundlach) by having a larger number of 

 ventrals. The coloration is variable enough iu T. pardalis (Gund ) to bring it 

 very close to that of T. maculata (Bibr.). 



