OCR Text |
Show 1906.] IN MEXICAN LIZARDS. 327 (deppei within the sandy river-bed, guttatus in the wooded parts near the same banks), and deppei only at Juanita which lies within typical Savannah. I consider it safe to affirm that C. guttatus is an enlarged species of C. deppei, and that the striped or spotted condition of its upper parts depends directly upon the amount and character of the vegetation: stripes in the open, spots in the more bushy, shrubby, foi^est-like dist?*icts. GuLARis-Group. If wxe consider the great number of specimens, about 210, scheduled in the following pages, as one mass, their characters show such a great amplitude of variation that the diagnosis of the gularis-gvoup becomes extremely vague. Supraoculars 4. Collar composed mostly of at least one row of large scales, but the edge may be formed by this row or entirely by granules. Frenocidar present or absent. Size, from nose to vent from decidedly small to distinctly large, i. e. from 60 to 140 m m. Humeral rows of scales from 3 or 4 or 5 to 8 or 9, either all large when there are but few, or some larger than the rest, or all small when there are many. Posterior surface of the forearm covered entirely with granules, or, the other extreme case, with several long rows of transverse scutes or plates; every intermediate stage being represented, but the granular type is distinctly exceptional. Femur with only 5 or 6 very regular rows, to as many as 8 or 9. Front of forearm and tibia with 2 to 3, or even with a 4th row of scutes. Femoral pores from 15 to 26, without a break between these rather rare extremes. The same wide uncertainty applies to the pattern and coloration. Under parts.-At least this can be said : the throat is whitish, often pink, never black ; but from collar to vent the under surface may be whitish or yellowish, suffused with blue, or chequered blue and black and white, or entirely blue-black, at least in the males. Upper surface.-All start with at least 6 pale stripes, and the mid-field may be divided by an unpaired centre stripe or by a 4th pair of stripes. The fields m ay have light spots, whitish or brown, or no spots. The stripes may remain entire throughout life, or they may become ragged by confluence with neighbouring pale field-spots, or by encroachment of black field-spots ; or the stripes may become dull and fade away unless new whitish, bluish or yellow spots develop within them. The fields, originally dark, may remain spotless, or white, bluish or yellow or brown spots develop within them. These field-spots remain ill-defined, or they turn into round, separate spots; or two |