A NEW NAME FOR THE GREAT CRESTED 
ANOLIS OF JAMAICA. 
LEONHARD STEJNEGER. 
HERPETOLOGICAL writers have shown a curious unanimity in 
misnaming the large crested Anolis of Jamaica Anolis edwardsit, 
Merrem. 
Merrem, in 1820 (Syst. Amph., p. 45), gave the name Anolis 
edwardsii to a lizard figured by Edwards as “the Blew Lizard 
from the Island of Nevis,” and never mentioned Jamaica as 
its habitat. Merrem knew nothing of the species beyond 
Edwards’s description and figure, upon which, consequently, 
the specific name rests. 
Edwards, in his Gleanings of Natural History, Vol. 1, p. 74, 
describes, and on Pl. 245 figures “immediately from nature, 
and of the size of life,” an Anolis which “ was brought from the 
island of Nevis, in the West Indies, by a young gentleman 
who came to London for education,” and who presented it to 
him “preserved in spirits.” After alluding to the digital expan- 
sion of this lizard as its most particular feature,. he says: “It 
hath a small ridge down its back, which extends to the tail, 
where it becomes jagged or toothed.” We do not expect to 
find in a drawing of 1753 all the minute details which would 
enable us to identify with certainty a lizard of this extremely 
difficult genus, but Edwards’s figure shows very well the above- 
described features, namely, a nearly smooth dorsal fold con- 
tinued as a toothed crest on the tail. This alone is sufficient 
to show that he did not have before him the Jamaican large 
crested Anolis, the very character of which is the ‘ dorso- 
1 This volume, in the edition of 1805 at least, is erroneously indicated on the 
title-page as “ Volume V.” 
2 « I] ya une petite élévation sur le dos, en forme de sillon, qui régne tout du 
long jusqu’à la queue, où elle devient dentelée ” (French rendition in the parallel 
column). 
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