170 LIZARDS OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 



Measurements of Sphenomorphus acutus {Peters). 



mm. 



Total length 205 



Snout to vent 69 



Tail 136 



Width of head 9 



Snout to foreleg 26 



Axilla to groin 31 



Foreleg 24 



Hind leg 36.5 



Variation. — There are twenty-one specimens in my collection 

 from the Agusan Valley, Mindanao. The number of scale rows 

 varies from twenty-six to thirty; in practically all specimens 

 save the one described the prefrontals form a strong suture. 

 In the young the tails are pinkish. 



Remarks. — This species is especially common a]30ut Bunawan 

 and hundreds of specimens might easily have been obtained. 

 Specimens usually feed on the ground about trees; when dis- 

 turbed they ta"ke refuge on the nearest tree, which they ascend 

 for a distance of one or more meters and then keep out of sight 

 by running around the trunk keeping on the side of the bole 

 opposite the pursuer; they rarely if ever ascend a tree any 

 considerable distance. The species has also been taken in Di- 

 nagat and Samar. The type locality is "Loquilocun, auf der 

 Insel Samar." The type was collected by F. Jagor, 1859-1861. 



SPHENOMORPHUS CURTIROSTRIS Taylor 



Plate 14, fig. 3 



Sphenomorphus curtirostris Taylor, Philip. Journ. Sci. § D 10 (1915) 

 101. 



Descnption of species. — (From No. R1695, Bureau of Science 

 collection; collected at Bunawan, Agusan, Mindanao, September 

 8, 1912, by E. H. Taylor.) Head very short; diameter of eye 

 about equal to distance from eye to end of snout ; latter distance 

 much less than that from eye to ear; ear midway between end 

 of snout and insertion of foreleg ; rostral twice as broad as high, 

 forming a broad curved suture with frontonasal; latter about 

 twice as wide as long, narrowly touching frontal; prefrontals 

 large, wider than deep, narrowly separated; frontal diamond- 

 shaped, in contact with two supraoculars and with first super- 

 ciliary (on one side only), about as wide as supraocular region; 

 frontoparietals fused into a single plate, not as long as fron- 

 tal; parietals much longer than broad, forming a broad su- 



