212 DR. H. GADOW ON MEXICAN (June 6, 
two Asiatics of the same genus. But Coleonyx elegans is distinctly 
a forest form, I found it a few miles from the coast of Guerrero 
in a moist patch of thick lowland forest on the ground under 
stones and rotten stumps. A typical Central American, ranging 
through the Pacific and Atlantic Tierra Caliente of Mexico, from 
which country it had hitherto been recorded only by Sumichrast 
from near Orizaba; extending south to Costa Rica. 
Ieuanip# 7.—It is not profitable to speculate upon the or iginal 
home of this family. The overwhelming majority of genera and 
species is American, from Mexico to Brazil It is well known that 
the Galapagos possess the semimarine Amblyrhynchus and Cono- 
lophus, that a few species occur in Madagascar, and Brachylophus 
fasciatus in the Viti and Tonga Islands ; further, that an Iguanid 
allied to the genus Jguana existed in the Hocene or Oligocene of 
Europe, and that therefore attempts have been made to explain 
the present scattered distribution of the family by a formerly 
subuniversal range; in other words, they are a very ancient 
group. 
Concerning America, it is significant that only a few species of 
Sceloporus and Phrynosoma extend into the United States, 
although far northwards, Of the large genus Anolis, only 
A. carolinensis enters Texas to Carolina, but it is also found in 
Cuba. 
Mexico itself, Central America, and the Antilles are rich in 
genera and species. These Iguanide can be divided into two 
groups :— 
A Sonoran set, comprising genera which are essentially xero- 
phile and humivagous, with depressed bodies and short tails. 
None of these reaches far into Central America, and none has 
entered the Antilles. Crotaphytus, Holbrookia, Uta, Phrynosoma, 
Sceloporus, which, in the order mentioned, extend from California 
and Arizona southwards, with decidedly Pacific or Western pre- 
dilection ; only a few Sceloporus, those which have spread into 
the Atlantic Tierra Caliente, continue further into Central 
America. Nearly all these southern Sceloporus are fitted for 
arboreal life, less depressed in body, and suited to a moist climate, 
be this hot or cool. They lead thereby to the second set, which 
are essentially arboreal, mostly inhabitants of forests or of rocky 
bush-land; all southerners, with their centre in Central and 
South America, extending into the Mexican Tierra Caliente, with 
prevalence on the Atlantic side, and two* have allied genera or 
species in the Antilles : Anolis *, Iguana*, Basiliscus, Lemanctus, 
Corythophanes, and Ctenosaura. 
Of course there are transitional forms, for instance the genus 
+ Iguana, or Guana, is a native word applied to-the Iguana; but where this does 
not oceur, the name is given to Ctenosaura, for instance at Cuernavaca. The 
Zapotec name of Ctenosaura is Tilcampo ; Basiliscus and Co1 rythophanes are called 
Teteréte. At Rio Balsas, scaly lizards, e.g. Sceloporus, are distinguished as 
Chintéte. 
