Various

“ Skilton's description, which seems to apply rather to the species afterward named by Baird and Girard Gerrhonotus principis, is as follows:
"Tropidolepis scincicauda, n. s. Slender, tail much longer than body, cylindrical. Dermal plates of the body and tail, carinate above, smooth beneath, verticillate. The carinate plates in nine rows. Color, dusky green above, light ash color below. A row of small dark spots on each flank. Another row of smaller ones along the vertebral line. Some of the dark colored scales on the flanks tipped with a whitish color. Length five to five and a half inches." ”

“ Edwin Cooper Van Dyke, Curator of the Department of Entomology, is an apparently undescribed species of salamander, which I take pleasure in naming, in honor of its collector,
Plethodon vandykei sp. nov.
Diagnosis.—Similar in general appearance to Plethodon intermedius, but much larger and stouter; costal grooves 12-13; toes and fingers webbed, only 2 phalanges of third and fourth toes free; adpressed limbs separated by 1 costal interspace; tail but slightly compressed; paratoid well developed; a dorsal band, not red; lower surfaces black. ”

“ No reptiles have been found on the Farallon Islands and it is probable that none occur there. The amphibians are represented on South Farallon Island by a salamander which has been regarded as identical with Autodax lugubris Hallowell. Specimens from this island, however, are much [5] more profusely spotted or blotched with yellow than is the mainland form of this species. In examining series of specimens one finds a few individuals from the mainland as heavily spotted as some of the Farallon specimens, but the average difference seems constant and the extremes are very dissimilar. ”

“ The three specimens of Gerrhonotus from San Martin Island are very similar to the species now known as G. scincicauda, but are much rougher than specimens from central and northern California. Reëxamination of the Californian material at hand shows that the San Martin Island form is found throughout the San Diegan Fauna and the western [21] slope of the southern Sierra Nevada below the range of G. palmeri. It may be distinguished from its more northern relative by the following synopsis of characters:—
a.—Temporals smooth ”

“ A broad band extends along the whole dorsal surface from the snout to the tip of the tail. In the alcoholic specimen this band is dark clay-color, dotted with black on the upper surface of the head. It is broadest on the back of the head and narrowest above the anus. The upper surfaces of the limbs and the side of the snout are clay-color dotted with black. A black line runs from the eye to the nostril. The hands and feet are black dotted with clay-color. ”

“ Boulenger, [17] in 1887, from a single specimen labeled El Paso, Texas—a locality so far beyond the limits of the known range of the genus and of other Californian reptiles that it must be regarded with much suspicion until confirmed by the capture of additional specimens. The type of A. texana agrees in coloration with Anniella pulchra, but Mr. Boulenger finds it to differ in certain details of squamation. He assigns to it the following characters:
Head less depressed, snout more rounded than in A. pulchra. A horizontal suture from nostril to second labial. ”

“ The others are of the handsome striped style of coloration (see plate) .
Santa Barbara Island.
I believe no reptiles or amphibians have been recorded from this island. I have seen only the following species:
1. Xantusia riversiana Cope.
Mr. Joseph Grinnell has sent me four Xantusias from Santa Barbara Island. They are smaller than the specimens I have seen from the other islands, but seem to differ in no other respect. The largest is 64 mm. from snout to vent. All are dark drab above with small, discrete [16] black spots. One shows traces of longitudinal dorsal bands near the tail. ”

“ When the living lizards were received from Carmel and Point Pinos, they were divided into ten groups according to the intensity of the dorsal pigmentation, and measurements were taken of each specimen in each group. These grades of pigmentation of the living specimens, with measurements in millimeters from snout to anus and anus to tip of tail, are as follows:
1. Entire upper surface (ten, twelve, or fourteen rows of scales) and ventral surface of tip of tail very dark Indian purple. Chin and throat lighter Indian purple. More or less suffusion with Indian purple about anus. ”

“ Little can be stated about the faunal relationships of the various islands beyond the fact that all except, probably, the Farallons are clearly Sonoran. Of the island reptiles, only fourteen are not known to live on the mainland. These are
Autodax lugubris farallonensis, Batrachoseps pacificus, Uta martinensis, Uta stellata, Uta auriculata, Uta clarionensis, Sceloporus becki, Phrynosoma cerroense, Xantusia riversiana, Cnemidophorus multiscutatus, Cnemidophorus labialis, Bascanion anthonyi, Bascanion laterale fuliginosum, Crotalus exsul. ”

“ The sides of the neck and the sides and lower surfaces of the body and tail are intense black with a few scattered whitish dots on the belly and sides of tail and with a zone of crowded white dots along the sides of the neck and body. ”

“ The number of scales around the middle of the body varies in A. pulchra from twenty-four to thirty-four, while in 54 specimens of A. nigra the number is twenty-eight in 12, thirty in 36, and thirty-two in 6. ”

“ Uta stellata sp. nov.
Plate VIII.
Diagnosis.—Similar to U. stansburiana, but with dorsal scales not imbricate, not mucronate, often separated by minute granules, a few of the dorsal rows weakly keeled; caudals weakly keeled and very shortly mucronate, not imbricate; fifth toe not reaching end of second.
Type.—Adult male, Cal. Acad. Sci. No. 4704, San Benito Island, Lower California, Mexico, R. H. Beck, May 6, 1903.
Description.—Body and head considerably depressed; snout low, rounded and rather long; nostrils large, opening upward and outward nearer to end of snout than to orbit ”

“ One salamander, two lizards, and a rattlesnake have been taken on Santa Catalina.
1. Batrachoseps attenuatus (Eschscholtz) .
A single specimen collected at Avalon, Santa Catalina Island, by Mr. A. M. Drake (Cal. Acad. Sci. No. 3726) seems indistinguishable from the mainland species. It has nineteen costal grooves, slender limbs, and narrow head. The coloration is uniform slaty brown above, paler below. Three specimens secured on this island by Mr. Fuchs differ from this one only in the slightly paler coloration.
2. Uta stansburiana Baird & Girard.
Uta stansburiana Cope, Report, U. S. Nat. ”

“ This clearly is the form to which Baird and Girard applied the name G. scincicauda, but that it is the species originally described by Skilton seems far from certain. [5]
The specimens from Santa Rosa Island all have dorsals in fourteen longitudinal series. The number of transverse series [13] between the interoccipital plate and the backs of the thighs is fifty in one specimen, fifty-one in three, fifty-two in one, and fifty-three in one. One has the brachial scales very weakly keeled. ”

“ Its general appearance, owing to the greater broadness of head and body, is very suggestive of the various species of Plethodon. This resemblance is carried further in one specimen by the presence of five digits on one hind foot. Structurally, however, the species [8] is a true Batrachoseps; that is to say, the tongue is adherent anteriorly, the digits are normally 4-4, the premaxillary is single, and there is a large parietal fontanelle.
Diagnosis.—Costal grooves usually seventeen (rarely sixteen or eighteen) ; head much broader than body ”

“ The color above in alcoholic specimens is yellowish brown (cinnamon to mummy brown) paler on the head and limbs and often becoming fawn-color on the tail. The upper lip and all the lower surfaces are white or dull yellow. ”

“ Twenty-eight scales around middle of body. No enlarged preanal scales. Tail ending obtusely, three-eighths total length. Dark gray above, with three fine black longitudinal lines; sides and lower surfaces whitish. ”

“ The tail of A. pulchra may equal or exceed one-third of the total length of the animal. I have been unable to discover any differences in the squamation of dark and light specimens; and since the recognition of A. nigra as distinct from A. pulchra must rest solely upon the difference in pigmentation, one is tempted to inquire whether this is not merely an instance of melanism. Upon this subject I shall have more to say, but I wish first to consider certain peculiarities of squamation which have been held to distinguish another species.
Anniella texana was described by Mr. ”

“ They were collected by Dr. Gustav Eisen in June, 1897.
Santa Cruz Island.
A Hyla and two species of lizards have heretofore been recorded as inhabiting Santa Cruz Island. Another lizard is here reported for the first time. ”

“ G. scincicauda.
a.2—Temporals keeled; scales on arm keeled; scales on forearm keeled; lateral caudals 5 scales behind anus smooth only 4-5 rows from inferior mid-caudal line.
G. s. ignavus.
3. Pituophis catenifer (Blainville) .
Pituophis sayi bellona Streets, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. no. 7, 1877, p. 40; Yarrow, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. no. 24, 1882, p. 106; Cope, Report, U. S. Nat. Mus. 1898 (1900) , p. 876.
Pituophis catenifer deserticola Van Denburgh, Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. 2d ser. v. 5, 1895, P. 149.
A young gopher snake taken on San Martin Island by Dr. Streets is still in the National Museum. ”