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Show 26 REPTILIA. body being small, smooth and uniform, and those of the tail still larger and more spiny than in the common Stellio; but there are none beneath. There is a series of pores under their thighs. Stellio spinipes, Daud.; Fouette-queue d'Egypte, Geoff. Rept. d'Egyp. pl. II, f. 2. Two or three feet long; the body inflated; altogether of a fine grass green; small spines on the thighs; the tail only spiny above. Found in the deserts which surround Egypt; it was formerly described by Belon, who says, but without adducing proof, that it is the terrestri<'l.l Crocodile of the - ancients. ( 1) AGAMA, Daud.(2) The Agamre bear a great resemblance to the common Stellios, particularly in their inflated head; but the scales of their tail, which are imbricate and not verticillate, distinguish them from that genus. Their maxillary teeth are nearly similar, and there are none in the palate. In the CoMMON AGAMA, The scales are raised in points or tubercles; spines either singly or in groups bristle on various parts of the body, the vicinity of the ear especially. A row of them is sometimes found on the neck, but wi'thout forming that palisado-like crest which characterizes the Calotes. The skin of the throat is lax, plaited transversely, and susceptible of being inflated. In some species are found femoral pores. The .fig. barbata, N. is very remarkable for its size and extraordinary figure; a suite of large spiny scales extend along its back and tail in transverse bands, and approximate it to the Stellios. other authors have given it to different Saurians. Add Urom. griseus of New Holland;-Ur. reticulatus of Bengal;-Ur. acantinurus, Bell. Zool. Jour., I, 457, if it be a distinct species. N.ll. The flat-tailed Stellio of New Holland, Daud. is a Phyllurus. (1) It is a Uromastix that is described by M. de Lacep. Rept. II, 497, under the name of Quetzpaleo, which is that of another Saurian, to be spoken of hereafter.- Add, Ur. ornatus, Ruppel. (2) .llgama, from ct.)'II.!J.O'' bachelor. Why Linnreus gave this name to one of these Lizards, it is impossible to conjecture; Daudin has extended it to the whole of the subgenus to which this Rpecies belongs, and th.inks that .llgama is the name given to it in the country of which it is a native. A new spe.cies called torquata has lately been described by Messrs Peale and Green, Jour. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. Vol. VI, p. 231, from Mexico, which they consider as approaching the nigricollis, Spix. .11m. Ed. · SAURIAo 27 The throat, which can be greatly inflated, is covered with elongated and pointed scales, which constitute a sort of beard. Similar scales bristle on the flanks, and form two oblique crests behind the ears; yellowish spots edged with black under the belly. We must not confound with it the Lac. muricata, Sh.; theMuricated .!igama of the same country, Gen. Zool., Vol. III, part 1, pl. lxv, f. xi; White, p. 244, in which the raised scales are disposed in longitudinal bands, between which are two series of spots paler than the ground, which is a blackish brown. It usually attains a large size. Other species have no femoral pores. .fig. colonorum, Daud.; Seb. I, cvii, S.( 1) Brownish, with a long tail; a small row of short spines on the neck; from Aftica, and not, as is asserted, from Guiana. There is a smaller Agama at the Cape, with a moderate tail, varied with brown and yellowish, bristled above with raised and pointed scales, the .B. g. aculeata, Merr. ;(2) Seb., I, viii, 6, Ixxxiii, 1 and 2, cix, 6; its belly sometimes assumes an inflated form, which leads to the TAPAYEs-AGAMES 0RBIOULAIREs, Daud. in part, Which are mere Agamre, with an inflated abdomen and a short and thin tail. Such is Lac. orbicularis, L.; Tapayaxin of Mexico, Hern. 327. The back is spinous, and the belly sprinkled with blackish points.(3) (1) ·Nothing can surpass the confusion in the synonymes quoted by authors with respect to the different species of Lizards, and chiefly of the .llgama:, Oa~otes and Stellios. As regards the .llgama, for instance, Daudin quotes from Gmelm, Seb., I, cvii, 1 and 2, which are Stellios; Sloane, Jam., ll, cclxxiii, ~· wh~ch is an .!lnolis, Edw. ccxlv, 2, which is also an .llnolis; and the same fig. 1s agam quoted by him and Gmel. for the Polycltrus. Shaw even copies it ~? repre~en~ that same animal, with which it has nothing in common. Seb., I, cvn, 3, wh1ch 1s the true .flg. colonorum, Daud., is cited by Merrem as .ll.g. superciliosa; and Seb., I, cix, 6, which is his aculeata, is quoted as orbicularis, &c. (2) The .llgame a pierreries, Daud. IV, 410; Seb. I, viii, 6, is merely the young of this spiny Agama of the Cape, whose colours are more various than t~ose of the adult. Add l'.llgame somb·re (.llg. atra;, Daud., Ill, 349; rough, blacktsh; a yellowish line along the back;-the .llg. ombre (Lac. umbra) Daud., which is not the Lac. umbra, Lin. but distinguished from it by five lines of very small spines, which extend along the back, &c. . (3) I do not think the subgenus of the Tapayes can be preserved; th.e spec1es of Hernandez (Lac. orbiculmis, L. ), Bern., p. 327, does not appear to dtffer from the .!lgama cornuta of Harlan, Phil. Ac. Nat. Sc. IV, pl. xlv, ot•, if at all, only from the sex. Daudin has put in its place, tom. III, pl. xlv, f. 1, the adult of the Tap. regyptius. |