182 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 7. 



It will thus be seen that — even looking apart from 8. horridus — we 

 find ourselves compelled to recognize at least six distinct forms, or spe- 

 cies, where so high an authority as Prof. G-iinther as late as 1890 has 

 admitted only one. This different result is chiefly due, however, to 

 the much more abundant material at my command, for while the her- 

 petologists of the British Museum had scarcely more than 30 specimens 

 to draw conclusions from, I am fortunate enough to have before me 

 nearly 200 specimens, mostly from well authenticated localities, upon 

 which to base the above results. 



' [The large scaly lizard known as Sceloporus magister is a Lower Sonoran 

 species ranging across the southern deserts and desert ranges of the Great 

 Basin from California to Arizona and southwestern Utah. Unlike most 

 of the lizards inhabiting the same region, it does not run about on the 

 open desert, but lives on the tree yuccas, the ruins of stone or adobe 

 dwellings, the nests of wood rats, and other objects that afford it shelter 

 and protection. At the mouth of Beaverdam Creek in northwestern 

 Arizona it was common among cotton wood logs and dead leaves ; in 

 Pahranagat Valley it was abundant about the ruins of stone houses 

 and along the faces of cliffs; in the Mohave Desert and other localities 

 it is common on the tree yuccas, where it was often found on the very 

 summits of the highest branches, and where it was rather wary and 

 difficult of capture without a gun. 



In California it occurs throughout the Mohave Desert, ranging as far 

 west as the tree yuccas in Antelope Valley and Walker Pass, and 

 thence easterly in Owens Valley, Borax Plat, and the Argus and Pana- 

 mint mountains. 



In Nevada it was found on the Grapevine Mountains, in Ash Mead- 

 ows, in Pahrump Valley at the foot of the Charleston Mountains, in 

 Vegas and Indian Springs valleys, in Pahranagat Mountains and Val- 

 ley, at the Great Bend of the Colorado Biver, and in the valley of the 

 Virgin. 



In Arizona it was abundant at the point where Beaverdam Creek 

 joins the Virgin. 



In Utah it was common in the Lower Santa Clara or St. George 

 Valley. 



Sceloporus magister is a mixed feeder, both insects and flowers being 

 found in the stomachs examined. At the Great Bend of the Colorado, 

 Nevada, and St. George, Utah, stomachs were opened that contained 

 insects only. One from the latter locality contained a large goldsmith 

 beetle.— C. H. M.] 



