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, Oolima and Jalisco everybody speaks of the " Escorpion." 

 "He is unkillable unless you crush him with a big stone. When 

 at last secured in a cleft stick, his poison droj)ping 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 ; sestivating 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 stufied specimen, a monster about 

 2| 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 GerrhonoUi.s, 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 + Centi'al American 

 + Antillean landmass. The absence of Anguida^ in Eastern 

 Asia suggests the spread from North America into Europe and 

 Asia aci'oss the polar region, unless we prefer the problematic 

 bridge across the Northern Atlantic from the Antilles (which 

 possess their own genus CelesttifS with several species) towards the 

 Mediterranean. 



SciNCiDiE. — 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 diAdded into a Northern 

 lot, Etmieces, which ranges from the middle of North America over 

 the Mexican plateau and its bordering mountains ; and into a 

 Southern set, Mahuia 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. 



Mahida agilis is fond of basking on shrubs and it even climbs 

 trees, hiding under the bark. Like Lygosoma laterals it hunts in 

 the dusk. Eumeces, of which I have observed only lynxe and 

 fuscirosti'is, prefer mountain forests, where they live on the 



