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Show I 18 REPTILIA. FAMILY II. LACERTINIDA. (1) This family is distinguished by the tongue, which is thin, extensible, and terminates in two threads, like that of the Coluber and Viper; the body is elongated; the walk rapid; each foot has five toes separate and unequal, the hind ones particularly so, all armed with nails ; the scales on the belly and round the tail are arranged in transverse and parallel bands; the tympanum is level with the head, or but slightly sunk and membranous. A production of the skin with a Ion· gitudinal slit which is closed by a sphincter, protects the eye, under whose anterior angle is the vestige of a third eye-lid; the'false ribs do not form a complete circle; the male organs of generation are double, and the anus is a transverse slit. The species being very numerous and various, we subdivide them into two great genera. MoNIToR, by a singular error called TUPINAMBis.(2) This genus contains species of the largest size; they have two teeth in both jaws, but none in the palate; the greater number are recognized by their laterally compressed tail, which renders them more aquatic. The vicinity of water sometimes brings them in the neighbourhood of Crocodiles and Alligators, and it is said that by whistling they give notice of the approach of these dangerous ani· mals. This report is most probably the origin of the term Sauve· garde or Monitor applied to some of their species, but the fact is very uncertain. They are divided into two very distinct groups. The first, or that of the . . MoNITORs, properly so called, Is known by numerous and small scales on the head and limbs, ( 1) Lacerta, a Lizard. (2) Marcgrave, speaking of the Sauvegarde of America, says that it is called Teyu·gua~~· and among the Tupinambous, Temapara ( 1'emapara tupinambil). Seba has mistaken the latter name for that of the animal and all other naturalists have copied it from him. ' SAURIA. 19 under the belly and round the tail; on the top of the latter is a carina formed by a double row of projecting scales. The range of pores observed on the thighs of several other Saurians is not found in these. They are all from the eastern continent.( I) Two species are found in Egypt which may be considered as the types of two subdivisions. Lac. nilotica, L.; Monitor du Nil.; Ouaran of the Arabs; Mus. Worm. 313; Geoff. St. Hil., great work on Egypt; Rep. pl. 1, f. 1. Strong conical teeth, the posterior of which become rounded by age; brown, with pa1e and deeper coloured dots, forming various compartments, among whic.h we Qbserve transverse rows of large ocellated spots that become rings on the tail. The lat· ter round at base is traversed above by a carina which extends almost from root to tip. It attains a length of five and six feet. The Egyptians pretend it ~s a young Crocodile hatched in a dry place. It was engraved upon the monuments of that country by its ancient i.nbahl.tants, and possibly, because it devours the eggs of the Crocodile. (2) The other species, Lac. scincus, Merr.; Monitor terrestre d' Egypte; 01taran el fLard of the Arahs, Geoffir. Egypt. Rept. III, f. 2, has compress- ed, trenchan.t, and pointed teeth; the tail almost without a keel and round much farther from the root; its habits are more ter! l'estrial, and it is common in the deserts in the vicinity of Egypt. The jugglers of Cairo, after extracting its teeth, employ it in their art. It is the Land Crocod-ile of Herodotus, and as Prosper Albin remarks, the true Scincus of .the ancien.ts. (3) India and Africa produce a great number of Monitors with trenchant teeth like those of the preceding species, but whose taH is more compressed than even that of the Lac. nilotica. The 'One most common in the Indian archipelago is the Lac. bivittata, Kuhl, which is white above, black beneath, with five transverse rows of white spots or rings. A white band extends along the neck, anrl there is an angle formed by the (1} Seba, and from hi.m Daudin, describe some true Monitors as Amel'icani it is a mistake. (2) To this species, both by the form of the teeth and the arrangement of the spots, which, by-the-bye, are similar in almost all the Monitors, must be referred the M. orne (M. ornatus, Daud. }, Ann. Mus. II, xi viii, Lac. eapensis, Sparm. and the M. albogularis, Da.ud. Uept. III, pl. xxxii. Jt is from this sabdivision that M. Fitzing.er has made his genus VA uNus, under which name Merrem comprized all tl1e Monitors. (3) This species constitutes the genus PsAMM:ouvnvs of M. Fitzinger. \ |