1891.] ON REPTILES ETC. FROM THE WEST INDIES. 351 



perature of Central America proving, in their case, even a more 

 effectual barrier to their progress southward than with the Red- 

 toothed SoricidcB, examples of which, as we have seen, extend as far 

 as Costa Rica. Looking at the small number of American species, 

 and taking into consideration the fact that, while it is possible to 

 imagine the highly differentiated New- World Moles as capable of 

 being derived by modification from a common progenitor resembling 

 those of the genus Talpa, the reverse being unimaginable, it follows 

 that they, like the species of Soricidce, were also most probably 

 derived from the Palsearctic Region, whence their ancestor or 

 ancestors found their way into North America by the same route as 

 the Red-toothed Shrews. The close relationship existing between 

 Urotrichus {Neurotrichus) gibbsi, from the Pacific slopes of the 

 Rocky Mountains, and Urotrichus talpoides of Japan, points indu- 

 bitably to a common ancestor for these species at least, and their 

 limitation to the opposite shores of the same ocean to the route by 

 which the parent form entered the New World. 



3. On Eeptiles, Batrachians, and Fishes from the Lesser 

 West Indies. By G. A. Boulenger. 



[Eeceived May 15, 1891.] 



A first report on the Reptiles and Batrachians collected for the 

 West Indies Exploration Committee was published in 1888 ^ by 

 Dr. Giinther, dealing with collections made by Mr. Raiuage in the 

 Island of Dominica. A list of the Reptiles of Barbados was published 

 by Col. Feilden in 1889 ^ The present contribution deals with 

 further collections received from Dominica (collectors Mr. G. A. 

 Ramage and Dr. H. A. A. NichoUs, C.M.Z.S.), St. Lucia (Ramage), 

 and St. Vincent, Becquia and Moustiques (collected by Mr. H. H. 

 Smith and presented to the British Museum by Mr. F. D. Godman). 



I. Dominica. 

 The following species are additions to Dr. Giinther's list. 



1. Hemidactylus mabouia, Mor. 



2. SpHiERODACTYLUS MICROLEPIS, R. & L. 



Snout pointed, as long as the distance between the eye and the 

 ear-opening, once and a half the diameter of the orbit ; ear-opening 

 small, oval, vertical. Rostral moderately large, with longitudinal 

 cleft above ; nostril pierced between the rostral, the first labial, and 

 three scales ; three upper labials ; four lower labials, the first longer 

 than the three others together ; mental large, its posterior border 

 truncate and in contact with tvpo scales. A small spine-like scale on 

 the upper eyelid, above the middle of the eye. All the scales on 



1 Ann. & Mag. N. H. (6) ii. pp. 362-366. 

 ^ Zoologist, (3) xiii. pp. 295-298, 352 & 353. 



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