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Show 1891.] ON REPTILES ETC. FROM THE WEST INDIES. 351 perature of Central America proving, in their case, even a more effectual barrier to their progress southward than with the Red-toothed Soricidce, examples of which, as we have seen, extend as far as Costa Rica. Looking at the small number of American species, and taking into consideration the fact that, while it is possible to imagine the highly differentiated New-World Moles as capable of being derived by modification from a common progenitor resembling those of the genus Talpa, the reverse being unimaginable, it follows that they, like the species of Soricida, were also most probably derived from the Palaearctic Region, whence their ancestor or ancestors found their way into North America by the same route as the Red-toothed Shrews. The close relationship existing between Urotrichus (Neiirotrichus) gibbsi, from the Pacific slopes of the Rocky Mountains, and Urotrichus talpoides of Japan, points indubitably to a common ancestor for these species at least, and their limitation to the opposite shores of the same ocean to the route by which the parent form entered the N e w World. 3. On Reptiles, Batrachians, and Fishes from the Lesser West Indies. B y G . A . B O U L E N G E R . [Eeceived May 15, 1891.] A first report on the Reptiles and Batrachians collected for the West Indies Exploration Committee was published in 1888 l by Dr. Giinther, dealing with collections made by Mr. Ramage in the Island of Dominica. A list of the Reptiles of Barbados was published by Col. Feilden in 1889 2. The present contribution deals with further collections received from Dominica (collectors Mr. G. A . Ramage and Dr. H. A. A. Nicholls, C.M.Z.S.), St. Lucia (Ramage), and St. Vincent, Becquia and Moustiques (collected by M r . II. H . Smith and presented to the British Museum by M r . F. D. Godman). I. DOMINICA. The following species are additions to Dr. Giinther's list. 1. HEMIDACTYLUS M ABOUT A, Mor. 2. SPH^ERODACTYLUS MICROLEPIS, R. & L. Snout pointed, as long as the distance between the eye and the ear-opening, once and a half the diameter of the orbit; ear-opening small, oval, vertical. Rostral moderately large, with longitudinal cleft above; nostril pierced between the rostral, the first labial, and three scales ; three upper labials ; four lower labials, the first longer than the three others together; mental large, its posterior border truncate and in contact with two scales. A small spine-like scale on the upper eyelid, above the middle of the eye. All the scales on 1 Ann. & Mag. N. H. (6) ii. pp. 362-366. a Zoologist, (3) xiii. pp. 295-298, 352 & 353. 24* |