The Lizards of Kansas 59 
Plestiodon obsoletum Baird and Girard, 1852, 
Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 6:129 
(type locality, ‘‘Valley of the Rio San Pedro, 
tributary of the Rio Grande del Norte, 
Texas’’). 
Lamprosaurus guttulatus Hallowell*, 1852, Proe. 
Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 6:206. 
Description—Head not well marked off from body; 
body elongated, largest diameter in center; tail long and 
tapering in perfect specimens; supraoculars large; tym- 
panum easily seen in young, but sunken in the adult; 
ventral and dorsal scale rows longitudinal; lateral scale 
rows oblique as in E. longirostris Cope of the Bermuda 
Islands (unlike those of all other Kansas skinks) ; legs 
thick and shortened, especially in adults. 
Coloration varies greatly between young and adult 
stages; young have been described as E. guttulatus; ven- 
tral color of young blackish, slate, or olivaceous; dorsal 
color coal black to light gray; back with or without five 
faint, almost obsolete lines; sides intermediate; tail bril- 
liant blue; head scales usually shiny black; head and 
neck with white spotting; white spots on labials may be 
with partial, complete, or no inclosing black margins; 
head with or without white spot back of ear opening; 
neck with or without lateral white spots; as the speci- 
men grows older, the coloration becomes lighter, the dis- 
tinct white spotting on the head and neck is lost, and the 
dark scutellation, with special reference to that on the 
back, changes from scales with a solid color to those 
having a dark edge with a light spot in the center. Adult 
resi 
The writer has just completed a manuscript on “The Synonomy, 
Variation and Distribution of the Sonoran skink, Eumeces obsoletus 
(Baird and Girard),” in which his reasons for this synonomy are set 
forth. This work is to appear in the Occasional Papers of the Museum 
of Zoology, University of Michigan. 
