218 DR. H. GADOW ON MEXICAN [June 6, 
stated by Giinther to have probably a wide distribution in Mexico. 
The fact is that it has hitherto been recorded only from the 
following localities :—near Tehuantepec, and near Presidio by 
Forrer; and in the museum at Mexico is a specimen from 
Apatzingan in Michoacan. It is very local. In Guerrero and 
Oaxaca, Colima and Jalisco everybody speaks of the “ Escorpién.” 
“He is unkillable unless you crush him with a big stone. When 
at last secured in a cleft stick, his poison dropping to the ground 
causes all vegetation to wither for yards around. There are two 
kinds in Guerrero, one brown, the other black and yellow; 
nocturnal, hidden in the daytime beneath the stump of a tree or 
under a boulder; estivating during the dry season.” Hundreds 
of times have I offered much money, even for being taken to its 
lair, but all in vain. The only place where I personally know it 
to occur is Juchitan, not far to the north-east of Tehuantepec ; 
in the museum at Oaxaca is a stuffed specimen, a monster about 
24 feet in length. At last I thought I had run the beast down, 
when at Zapotlan in Jalisco. The poison, the sluggish fierceness, 
difficulty in killing it, all this sounded favourable. We found the 
Escorpion, but it was the harmless, gentle Gerrhonotus, which for 
some unaccountable reason is feared as very poisonous! The 
Zapotecan name of Heloderma is “'Talachini”; the Aztecs called it 
“ Acaltetepon.” Hernandez states that “it is found in Cuernavaca 
and other hot districts.” But it does not occur anywhere near 
the State of Morelos, unless the huge figure of a lizard carved out 
of a rock near Cuernavaca is evidence! 
The last three families taken together form a very ancient 
group, which seems to have its original centre in the old 
Sonoraland, or let us say in the old Sonoran + Central American 
+ Antillean landmass. The absence of Anguide in Eastern 
Asia suggests the spread from North America into Europe and 
Asia across the polar region, unless we prefer the problematic 
bridge across the Northern Atlantic from the Antilles (which 
possess their own genus Celestus with several species) towards the 
Mediterranean. 
Scincip£2—Of this large and almost cosmopolitan family 
America possesses the smallest number, and it is significant that 
the number of forms decreases from North to South. Mexico has 
about 10 species. They may perhaps be divided into a Northern 
lot, Hwmeces, which ranges from the middle of North America over 
the Mexican plateau and its bordering mountains; and into a 
Southern set, Jabuia and Lygosoma s. Mocoa, which love the hot 
country, extending far into tropical South America, with species 
in the Antilles, in Mexico restricted to the Southern States east 
and west. 
Mabuia agilis is fond of basking on shrubs and it even climbs 
trees, hiding under the bark. Like Lygosoma laterale it hunts in 
the dusk. Hwmeces, of which I have observed only lynwe and 
fuscirostris, prefer mountain forests, where they live on the 
