244 LIZARDS OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 



Boulenger lists a series of characters applicable to the whole 

 genus. In many of the species now known these do not hold. 

 The genus as here understood is the same as that defined by 

 Boulenger; that is, it includes the genera Brachymeles Dumeril 

 and Bibron and Senira Gray. Regarding the fallacy of ar- 

 ranging the various forms of skinks on the development of the 

 legs Boulenger * states the following : 



In a family like the Scincoids, in which the limbs are undergoing 

 a process of abortion, this character must be abandoned as one expressing 

 relationship by itself; and I trust that the arrangement of the species in 

 one or more series within a genus, passing from forms with well-developed 

 pendactyle limbs and lacertiform physiognomy to such as have rudimentary 

 limbs, or even none at all, marks a great improvement upon the artificial 

 classifications in use down to the present day. 



Glinther f also remarks upon this matter. Cope $ quite dis- 

 agrees with Boulenger. He replies to Boulenger's statement 

 as follows: 



I am not prepared to admit that the above remarks of Dr. Boulenger 

 have more than an application to the cases where the development of the 

 limbs and digits is irregular in the same species. This has not been 

 shown to be the case more frequently than we expected to find in all other 

 zoological characters, and particularly those which we call generic. It is 

 indeed precisely the grades of characters expressed by the last structural 

 modification of parts that the generic nomenclature is created to record. So 

 long as the characters are constant then it is necessary to designate them 

 by generic terms, and I have therefore adopted in the following synopsis 

 of genera those which have been proposed by my predecessors for the 

 various degrees of development of the limbs and toes. 



In the case of Brachymeles I am inclined to follow Boulenger. 

 When his catalogue was published only four species of this 

 Philippine genus were known; namely, three large pentadactyl 

 forms, and a fourth with small stumplike limbs. Since 1912 I 

 have discovered four new species, all of which are referable to 

 this genus. One is pentadactyl, one tetradactyl, one has stumps 

 of limbs, and the last is legless. 



Taking Brachymeles schadenbergi as the most-specialized form 

 of the genus (since in this species the leg development seems 

 greatest; that is, the length of the hind leg is contained in the 



* Cat. Liz. Brit. Mus. 3 (1887) 131. 

 t Proc. Zool. Soc. London (1871) 243. 

 t Op. cit. p. 618. 



