1905. ] - AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES. 211 
Northern continent. The earliest, probably all of the genus 
Testudo, have been found in the mid-Eocene of Wyoming and 
New Mexico; since Oligocene in Europe, still later in India. 
With this remote occurrence in ancient Sonoraland I couple the 
most important fact of the Galapagos Tortoises. They are a 
strong indication of the former, let us say Oligocene, extension 
of land considerably to the west and south of the present Central 
America. We shall find this idea supported by Iguanide. Now 
North America possesses but the single 7. polyphemus in the 
South-eastern States, and South America has only 7’. tabulata. 
Something has gone wrong with this genus, which has flourished 
in the Miocene of Dakota, Nebraska, and Oregon, as has been the 
case with so many mammals which started and flourished in the 
States and aie now restricted to the Old World. 
LACERTILIA, 
GecKoNID#.—The distribution of American Geckos is almost 
entirely tropical. The greatest number and diversity of species 
occur in the Antilles, in Northern South America and the 
adjoining Central America, whence few have spread into the 
warmer parts of Mexico, avoiding the plateau. North America 
has received only Spherodactylus notatus from the Antilles 
through the Bahamas into Florida, and Phyllodactylus tuberculosus 
into California; this species is the commonest Gecko in Mexico, 
ranging strictly along the Pacific slope to the Isthmus of Tehu- 
antepec and thence to Nicaragua. Spherodactylus sends only 
three species into Mexico: S. glawews to Salina Cruz and into the 
State of Vera Cruz; the Central American S. torguatus and 
the Antillean S. anthracinus are recorded from the same State, 
and S. torquatus has been described from Mazatlan. Gynno- 
dactylus sumichrastt reaches the Isthmus, and Zhecadactylus 
rapicauda, of Yucatan, Antilles, and southwards, is said by Cope 
to have been recorded from Guadalajara, a very doubtful locality. 
Phyllodactylus tuberculosus is common in the villages of Southern 
Oaxaca and Guerrero, where it is known as “ Pata de bueye,” 
i. e. ox-foot, because of its peculiar digits. The general name for 
Geckos is ‘‘Salamanqueza” or ‘‘Salamanquezca,” which name, how- 
ever, also applies to the slippery Mabuia and Humeces. I found 
the same Gecko on the trees of dense forests near the coast of 
Guerrero. Spherodactylus glaucus is typically xerophile. As in 
Spain and Portugal, all Geckos are considered extremely poisonous. 
EuBLEPHARIDE.—This small and very scattered family (in 
West Africa, Somaliland, India, Transcaspia, and Persia) 1s 
represented by three species in Mexico, a few others occurring in 
Panama and Ksuador. Hublepharis variegatus is the northern 
offshoot, from El Paso to the Gila River and California, probably 
also in Sinaloa. L. fasciatus is known from Ventanas, north-west 
of Mazatlan. These are apparently typically xerophile, like the 
14* 
