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 

 Xew 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 Iguanidae. Now 

 North America possesses but the single T. folypheiinus in the 

 South-eastern States, and South America has only T. tahulata. 

 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 are now restricted to the Old World. 



Lacertilia. 



Geckonid^. — The distribution of American Geckos is almost 

 entirely tropical. The gi'eatest 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 Splicerodactylus notatus from the Antilles 

 through the Bahamas into Florida, and Phyllodactylus Puberculosus 

 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. S-phce'rodactylus sends only 

 three species into Mexico : S. glwucus to Salina Cruz and into the 

 State of Vera Cruz ; the Central American S. torqitatus and 

 the Antillean *S'. anthracinios are recorded from the same State, 

 and »S'. torqicatus has been described fi'om Mazatlan. Gymuo- 

 dactylus sumichrasti reaches the Isthmus, and Thecadactylus 

 ■rapicauda, of Yucatan, Antilles, and southwards, is said by Cope 

 to have been recorded fi-om Guadalajara, a very doubtful locality. 



Phyllodactylus tuberculosus is common in the villages of Southern 

 Oaxaca and Guerrero, whei-e 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 Ilabuia and Eiimeces. I found 

 the same Gecko on the trees of dense forests near the coast of 

 Guei"rero. Sjihcerodactylus glauaus is typically xerophile. As in 

 Spain and Portugal, all G eckos are considered extremely poisonous. 



EuBLEPHARiD.E. — This small and very scattered family (in 

 West Africa, Somaliland, India, Transcaspia, and Persia) is 

 represented by three species in Mexico, a few others occurring in 

 Panama and Ecuador. Eublepharis variegatics is the northern 

 offshoot, from El Paso to the Gila River and California, probably 

 also in Sinaloa. E.fasciatus is known from Ventanas, north-west 

 of Mazatlan. These are apparently typically xerophile, like the 



14* 



