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Show 1890.] HELODERMA SUSPECTUM. 235 very close affinity with them. Giinther has said x that " Central America possesses, besides, five other families, small in species and restricted in range (some belonging to the fauna of great elevations), but highly interesting types. These are the Eublepharidce, Xeno-sauridce, Aniellidce, Helodermatidce, and Lepidophymatidce. Their localization and differentiation can be accounted for on the hypothesis that they are the remains of the fauna of the various islands into which Central America was broken up at a former period." This is likewise quite in the line of m y thinking. XVI. BIBLIOGRAPHY. The following works are the principal ones that refer to the HELODERMATIDCE, and the most important of them have been consulted by the writer in connectioii with the present monograph. (1) 1651. H E R N A N D E Z (FRANCISCUS).-' Historias animalium et mineralium Novas Hispanias liber vnicus '; Cap. p. 315.- (This is the first authority that alludes to H. horridum, and in the volume quoted we rind a very fair description of the Reptile, the author stating that it was known to the Mexicans as the Acastelepou, but to the Spanish Creoles as the " Es-corpion.") (2) 1829. W I E G M A N N (AREND FRIDERICUS AUGUSTUS).-Isis, pp. 627-629.-(Under the name of Trachyderma horridum, Wiegmann, in this place, presents us with rather a superficial description of a Mexican specimen of the reptile ; see also the same work, p. 624, II. horridum.) (3) 1830. W A G L E R (JOANNES).-Natiirliches System der Am-phibien. P. 164.-(This naturalist places Heloderma among the Thecoglossae pleurodontes.) (4) 1833. Idem.-Descriptions et Icones Amphibiorum. Fasc. 2.-(An unpaged description, in Latin, illustrated by an indifferently executed figure of Heloderma horridum, from an alcoholic specimen which had been brought to Berlin.) (5) 1833. S C H I N Z ( H E I N R I C H RUDOLPH).-Naturgeschichte und Abbildungen der Reptilien. Text and Atlas, 4to. Leipzig. P. 95; tab. 33.-(Wagler's drawing accompanied by a no better description in German.) (6) 1834. W I E G M A N N ( A R E N D F. A.).-Herpetologia Mexicana seu Descriptio Amphibiorum Novas Hispanise. Berolini. Pp. 6, 7, and tab. i.-(Here this author's well-known suborder of the Squamata is divided into three series,-the Leptoglossi, the Rhyptoglossi, and the Pachyglossi. Of these the Leptoglossi is again subdivided into the Brevilingues and the Fissilingues, and in the last-mentioned group the Heloderma has been placed, in a family created for it, the Trachydermi. His coloured figure of Heloderma horridum is too brown in its colouring, and in form only presents us 1 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th ed. vol. xx. p. 470 (1886). |