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Show 20 REPTILIA. white on the breast which reaches obliquely over the shoulder. Specimens have been found th:ec feet in length. ( 1) In the other group of the Momtors, there are angular plates on the head, and large rectangular scales on the belly and round the tail. The skin of the throat, covered with small scales, is doubled into two transverse folds. There is a row of pores on the under part of their thighs.(2) This group is also susceptible of subdivi-sions: the first forms the genus CRooooxLuRus, Spix,(3) Whose distinguishing chat·acter consists in scales relieved by ridges, as in the Crocodiles, forming crests on the tail, which is com-pressed. Mon. crocodilinus, Merr.; La Grande Dragonne, Lacep. Quadr. Ovip. pl. ix, has ridged scales scattered also along the back. Its back teeth become rounded with age. It attains a length of six feet, and lives in burrows near marshes. Found in Guiana, where its flesh is eaten. Lac. bicarinata, L.; Le Lezardet, Daud.; Crocodilurus amazon-icus, Spix, pl. xxi, is smaller, and has none of the aforesaid kind of scales on the back. It is found in several parts of South America. In the second, or SAUVEGARDEs, Cuv .-TEIUS, Merr. None of the scales of the back and tail carinate: the teeth are notched, but with age the back ones also become rounded.(4) (1) With this species, from the distribution of colours, are connected the T. bigare, Daud. (Lac. varia, Shaw, Nat. Misc. 83, J. White, 253);-a neighbouring species of Manilla (M. marmoratus, c. ):-the T. elegant and the T. etoile, Daucl. Til, xxxi, and Seb., I, xcxiv, 1, 2, 3, xcxviii, xcix, 2; II, xxx, 2, ~c, cv, 1, &c. all of which are but one species, originally from .Africa. We must add the T. cepedirm, Daud. III, xxiv, or Lac. exanthematica, Bose., Act. Soc. Nat. Par. pl. v, f. 3, ocellated throughout;-the M. dotted with brown of Bengal (M. bengalensia, Daub.);-the black M. spotted with green of the Moluccas (M. indicus, Daud. );-a species of a uniform black from Java, M. nigricans, Cuv., &c. All things considered, I have now reason to believe that the fig. of Seba, I, pl. ci, f. 1, of which Linnreus made his Lacerta dracama, but which is very different from the Dragonne of Lacep., is the M. bengalemis. Seba's original is in the Museum. To these species with a compressed tail, M. Fitzinger applies the generic name ofTUPIN AMBIS. (2) Merrem has made hi.s genus TEJ:us from this second group. (3) M. Gray has changed this name into Au .... (4) It is to such that M. Fitzinget• particularly applies the name of MoNITOR· SAURIA •. 21 Some of them, more particularly termed SAUVEGARDEs, have a tail that is more ot· less compressed; the scales on the belly are longer than they are hroad. They live on the banks of rivers, &c. Such is Lac. tegui.xin, Lin. and Shaw; Le Grande 8auvegarde d'.limerique; Teyu-guazu; Temapara, &c.; Seb. I, xcvi, 1, 2, 3, xcvii, s, xcbc, 1. YeUow dots and spots disposed in transverse bands, on a black ground above, and a yellowish one beneath; yellow and black bands on the tail.(l) Found in Guiana, where it at· tains the length of six feet. It moves rapidly on shore, and when pursued hastens to the water for refuge, where it dives, but does not swim. It feeds on insects, reptiles, eggs, &c., and lays in holes which it excavates in the sand. Both flesh and eggs arc edible.(2) Others, called AMEivAs(3) only differ from the preceding in the .tail, which is round, and nowise compressed, furnished, as well as the belly, with transverse rows of square scales; those on the belly are more broad than long. They are American Lizards, tolerably similar, externally, to those of Europe; but besides the want of molars, most of them have no collar, and all the scales of the throat are small; their head also is more pyramidal than that of the European Lizards, and they have not, like the latter, a bony plate on the orbit. Several species have been confounded under the name of Lacerta ameiva, some of which it is still very difficult to distinguish. The most common, Teyus ameiva, Spix, XXIII; Pr. Max. de Wied. liv. V, is a foot long or more; green; the back more or less dotted and spotted with black, and vertical rows of white ocellated spots bordered with black, on the flanks. There is another, Teyus cyaneus, Merr.; Lacep., I, xxxi, Seb. II, cv, 2, about the same size, of a bluish colour, with round white spots scattered over the flanks and sometimes on the body. The young of these animals, and of some others of the ( 1) Dried specimens, or those preserved in spirits, assume a greenish or bluish tint in those p:ults where the colow'S arc light, and it is thus that they are represented by Seba; but while alive, and as we have seen it, the light parts are more or less yellow. Pr. Max. de Wied has given a good picture of it in his eleventh No. (2) Add the Tupin. d tacl~ vertes ofDaud., if it be not a simple variety of Sauvegarde. Spix calls it Tup. monitor, pl. xix; it is his T. nigropunctatw, which is the true Sauvegarde. (3) According to Marcgrave, the term .IJ.meiva designates a Lizard with a forked tail, a circumstance which can only be the result of accident; Edwards having had in his possession an individual of the above division, in which this accident was observed, applied that term to the whole species. Marcgrave compares his individual to his Taraguira, which, from his description, is rather a Polyckrw. \ |