May, 1893. 



REPTILES OF THE DEATH VALLEY EXPEDITION. 



197 



I take great pleasure iu dedicating' this interesting form to Mr. T. S. 

 Palmer, who not only collected the type, but also assisted me materi- 

 ally in clearly pointing out the difference in distribution of the present 

 form and its typical representative in the chaparral belt. 



List of specimens of Gerrlionoius scincicauda palmeri. 



U.S. 

 Nat. 

 Mus. 

 No. 



18G06 

 18007 

 18608 

 18609 

 18610 



18611 



18012 



18615 



Sex and 

 age. 



d , 

 ? 



cTjun 



d 



9 

 ? 



Locality. 



South Fork King's River, Calif 



East Fork Kaweah River, Calif 



do 



do - 



Soda Swings, North Fork Kern River, 



Calif. 

 do 



North Fork Kern Kiver, Calif 



SodaSprings, North Fork Kern River, 



Calif. 

 Sequoia National Park, Calif 



Mineral King, Calif- 



Alti- 

 tude. 



Feet. 



*8, 800 

 *8, 800 

 "8,500 

 7,200 



7,200 



*7, 000 

 "8, 800 



Date. 



Aug. 8 

 ..do..... 



Aug. 1 

 Sept. 6 



.do 



Sept, 15 

 Aug. 15 



Aug. 2 



Aug. 6 



Collector. 



Palmer 

 Bailey - 

 ...do.. 

 ...do .. 



Nelson. 



...do .. 

 ...do .. 

 Bailey . 



Fisher . 



Bailey . 



Remarks. 



Type. 



Near Kaweah 

 saw-mill. 



Gerrhonotus burnettii Gray. 



I have no hesitation in declaring this form to be exactly the same as 

 Baird and G-irard's- 67. formosus, and a comparison of the excellent fig- 

 ure of the type of 67. burnettii by Bocourt (Miss. Sc. Mex., Rept., livr. 

 5, 1878, PI. xxi G. fig. 4-4 a) with that of the type of 67. formosus in 

 the atlas of the herpetology of the United States Exploring Expedi- 

 tion (PI. xxiii, figs. 10 and 12) will at once substantiate this assertion. 

 The essential characters consist in the comparatively short snout with 

 its very arched profile, the great development of the paired prefrontals 

 at the expense of the azygos prefrontal, which therefor is of small size, 

 and the peculiar coloration, the dorsal cross-bands being broken up 

 into three portions, one median and two lateral by two longitudinal 

 lines which in some specimens are emphasized by being lighter than 

 the ground color. 



This form is only distantly related to 67. scincicauda, but very 

 closely to Gerrhonotus principis, so close, in fact, that I believe that the 

 name of the latter will become reduced to a trinominal when the 

 geographical distribution of the two forms shall have been ascertained 

 in all its details. 67. burnettii is now known to occur along the coast at 

 least from Monterey to Humboldt Bay. How far inland it extends its 

 range and how and where it meets or grades into G. principis is as yet 

 undeterminable. One thing is certain, however, and that is, that the 

 range of G. bumetti and 67. scincicauda overlap considerably, and in 

 this fact alone I see sufficient proof of their specific distinctness. The 

 differences between them are certainly due neither to sexual, nor to 

 seasonal, nor to individual variation, great as the latter is in the 

 Gerrhonoti. 



