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Show 24 REPTILIA. their eye, ear, &c. are also similar, bu.t their tongue. is fleshy, thick non-extensible, and only emargmated at the tip. They may be divided into two sections ; in the first, or that of the AGAMIANs, there are no palatine teeth. In this section we place the following genera, STELLio, Cuv. In addition to the general characters of the family of the Iguanida, the tail is encircled by rings composed of large and frequently spiny scales. The subgenera are as follows: ConnYLus, Gronov .( 1) The tail belly and back covered with large scales arranged in transverse 'rows. The head, like that of the common lizards, is protected by a continuous bony buckler, and covered with plates. In several species the points of the scales on the tail form spiny circles; there are small spines also to those on the sides of the back, on the shoulders, and outsides of the thighs~ on which latter there is a line of very large pores. The Cape of Good Hope produces several species long con· founded under the name of Lacerta cordylus, L. These Saurians, whose armour so completely defends them, are a little larger than the common Green Lizard of Europe,. and feed on insects.(2) mingo, whose inhabitants must have pronounced it Hiuana, or lgoana. Accord· ing to Bontius it originated in Java, where the natives call it Leguan. In this case the Portuguese and Spaniards carried it to America transformed to Iguana. They apply it there now to a Sauvegarde, as a true Iguana. This name, as well as that of G-uano, bas occasionally been given to Monitors of the eastern continent. The reader of travels should bear this in mind; I even consider the Leguan of Bontius as a Monitor. (1) According to Aristotle, "the Cordylus is the only animal possessing feet and branchia:. It swims with its feet and tail, the latter of which,1 as far as large things can be compared with small, is similar to that of a Silm·us. This tail is soft and broad. It has no fins: it lives in marshes, like the Frog: it is a quadruped, and leaves the water: sometimes it is dried up and dies." It is evident that these characters can only belong to the larva of the aquatic Salamander, as M. Schneider has very justly observed. Belon has described this Salamander by the name of Cordyle, but his printer, by mistake, annexed to it the figure of the Lac. nilotica, L. Rondelet bas applied this name to the great Stellio of Egypt, or Caudiverbera of Belon, mistaking the ear, in the figure, for a gill opening. Between Rnndelet and Linrueus, then, Cordylus has passed for the synonyme of the Caudiverbera. Its special application to the above subgenus is alto· gether arbitrary. Merrem has changed it to ZoNuRus. (2) Dauclln has referred several synonymes of Stellio to Cordylus, just as he ha5 SAURIA. 25 STELLio, Daud.( 1) The spines of the tail moderate: the bead enlarged behind by the muscles of the jaws; the back and thighs bristled here and there with scales larger than the others, and sometimes spiny; small groups of spines surrounding the ear; no pores on the thighs; the tail long, and terminating in a point. But one species is known. Lac. stellio, L.; the Stellio of the Levant; Seb. I, cvi, f. 1, 2; and better Tournef. Voy. au Lev. I, 120; and Geoff. Descr. de l'Egypte, Rept. II, 3; Koscordylos of the modern Greeks; Hardun of the Arabs. A foot long; of an olive colour shaded with black; very common throughout the Levant, and particularly so in Egypt. According to Belon it is the freces of this animal which are collected for the druggists under the names of cordylea, crocodilea or stercus lacerti, which were formerly ~n vogue as a cosmetic; but it would rather appear that the anc1ents attributed this name and quality to those of the Monitor. The Mahometans kill the present Stellio wherever they see it, because, as they say, it mocks them by bowing the head, as they do when at prayer. DoRYPHORus, Cuv. The pores wanting as in the Stellios, but the body is not bristled with small groups of spines.(2) URoMASTix,(3) Cuv.-STELLIONS BATARns, Daud. Mere Stellios, whose head is not enlarged, all the scales of their referred to Stellio several synonymes of the Geckotte. There are four species in France: Cord. griseus, Nob., Seb. I, lxxxiv, 4;-the C. niger, the ridges of whose scales are more blunt, Seb., II, lxii, 5;-the C. dorsalis;-tbe C. mi~olepiwtus. There are also some Cordylesat the Cape of G. Hope, whose scales, (even those on thetail)arealmost destitute of spines (C. hrvigatus,Nob.). (1) The Stellio of the Latins was a spotted Lizard that l~ved in holes of walls. It was considered the enemy of man, venomous and cunnmg. Hence the term stellionate or Fraud in the contract. It was probably the Tarentole, or the Gecko tubercule~x of the south of Europe, Geckotte of Lacep., as conjectured by various authors, and lately by M. Schneider. There is nqthing to justify its applicatio~ to the present species; llfllon, if I am not mistaken, was the first who abused 1t thus. (2) Stellio brevicaudatus, s·eb~, II, luii, 6; Daud., IV, pl. 47. St. azureus, Daud., Id. 46. · (3) Caudiverbera and ~po?-d.S"I~ are not ancient names. They were coined by Ambrosin us for the gl'eat Egyptian species, of which Belon had said "cauda atrocissime diverbcrare creditur." Linna:us was the fil'st who applied it to a Gecko, and VoL. 11.-D \ |