350 DR. n. GADOW ON EVOLUTION [Mar. 20, 



breaking up into spots in the adult male." Fuither, there are 

 two varieties of this lizard : — " I. With rows of light spots in the 

 female ; in the male the stripes break up into lound spots ; 

 known from Colima and from Ooban in Guatemala." [These I 

 distinguish as C. communis coj^ei. — H. G.] " II. No spots, and 

 the bands are uubioken, resembling the young of var. I." 

 Such are said to be known from Guadalajara, Cordova, Guate- 

 mala, San Antonio. Which of the various places called Cordova 

 and San Antonio are meant, is left to our imagination. There 

 is a San Antonio in W"estei-n Yucatan ; but Cope became very 

 vague about his C. commimis, as shown by the fact that in Proc. 

 Am. Phil. Soc. 1885, p. 379, he returned this kind as from 

 Matamoros, and from S. Antonio in Texas ! Concerning this 

 second vaiiety, its definition is too vague ; the indiflerent cha- 

 racters iipply to the young of almost any C. gularis in the widest 

 sense ; but Cope at that time thought that the possession of a 

 fi-enocular plate was a distinctive character of his C commiiiiis. 

 He partly amended this in his paper in Proc. Am. Phil. Soc. 

 xxiii. 1886, p. 283, where he managed to describe the various 

 evolutionary stages and individual variations of the true G. gularis 

 as 4 subspecies, and those of his future C. scalaris as 2 subspecies. 

 This, again, he has paitly amended in his posthumous work. The 

 synonymy has consequently become rather intricate. 



In Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. xvii. 1893. p. 47, it is stated that 

 6'. communis, from Colima, " leaches a lai'ger size than any others 

 of the C. yularis, and its peculiar coloration of small (or sometimes 

 laige) yellow spots on a daik olive ground gives it a veiy distinct 

 appearance." 



Lastly, in Cope's key of his subspecies of C. yularis, }). 601 in his 

 posthumous woi'k, 0. g. comtnuiiis, from " South-western Mexico," 

 is diagnosed as follows : — " Stri})es broken up into lows of spots; 

 interspaces with yellow spots ; hind legs with or without yellow 

 spots ; no posterior femoial stripe ; a frenorbital ; 5 or 6 infra- 

 labials ; large." 



I have examined the following few specimens, which I refer to 

 as 0. communis co2)ei, since they seem to conform most completely 

 with Cope's types. 



One specimen from Colima (text-fig. 78 E). — Throat white ; 

 scales of the large collar with bluish bases. Pait of inider parts 

 blue, with white edges to the scales. Tail blue all round. ( Jround- 

 colour above blue-grey, without any black bars or black spots. 

 Theie are remnants of six faint stripes, each bioken up into a row 

 of white spots, and there is one i-ow of whitish spots in each field. 

 Total number of rows of sjjots about 12. Thighs above and 

 behind, and root of tail, with smaller spots. 



One speci-juen from San Domingo, Isthmus. — With many small, 

 rather irregular yellow spots on the root of the tail, thighs, rump, 

 and lower liack. Fui'ther forwaixls these pale spots disappear 

 and faint dark spots appear in the dark bi-own fields, together 

 with traces of the vanishing stripes 1 and 2. The region of the 



