OCR Text |
Show 48 REPTILIA. improperly called there the .llnolia d~ terre, and Mabouia; Lacep. pl. xxiv; it is smooth; of a greemsh brown, and has blackish points scattered along the back; a brown band imperfectly terminated, reaching from the temple over the shoulder, and beyond it.( 1) The Moluccas and New Holland produce some species of thia division, which are remarkable for their thickness.(2) SEPS, Daud.(3) Seps only differs from Scincus in the more elongated body, which is exactly similar to that of an Anguis, and in the still smaller feet, the two pairs of which are further apart. Their lungs begin to exhibit some inequality. There is one species, S. acincoides, Nob., with five toes, of which the posterior are unequal. One with five nearly equal and short toes, .llnguis quadrupes, L. ; Lacerta serpens, Gm.; Block, Soc. of Nat. of Berl. vol. II, pl. 2.( 4) From the East Indies. One with four toes, the posterior of which are unequal; (Te· tradactylua decresiensis, Per.;( 5) and one with three, very similar otherwise to the preceding, the Tridactylua decreaiensis, Per. Both are from the island of Cres, and are viviparous. A fifth, with three short toes, and very small feet, called in fi~y • Cecella or Cicigna,-Lac. cltalcides, L., is grey, with four longi. tudinal brown stripes, two each side of the back. It is vivipa· (1) The fig. of Lacep. is exact, the tail excepted, which is too short, it having been broken in the original, an accident which frequently occurs to all Lizards.Add the Sc. d flames noirs, Quoy and Gaym. Voy. de Freyc. pl. 42;-&. biatri· atus, Spix, XXVI, 1. (2) Lac. scincoides, White, 242;-Sc. nigroluteus, Quoy et Gaym. Freyc., 41;Sc. crotaphomelas, Per. and Lacep. &c. N.D. I have given but few species of Soincus, because they are so badly characterized by authors, that it is almost im· possible to indicate their synonymes with any certainty. There is no genus which stands more in need of a monograph than this. (3) Seps and Cltalcis were the ancient names of an animal which some consider as a Lizard, and others a Serpent. It is very probable that they designated the three-toed Seps of Greece and Italy. Seps is derived from 1Tht!l1'tlv, to corrupt. ( 4) It forms the genus LYGOSOMA of Gray; Fitzinger leaves it among his MJ.nuu, or Scinci without palatine teeth. . (5) It is to this species that Fitzinger appropriates the generic name of S:t:l'she calls it Seps Peronii, SAURlA. 49 rous also, and moves with rapidity without the aid of its feet· lives in meadows, and feeds on spiders, snails, &c.(l) ' The southern provinces of F1·ance produce a sixth very similar to the preceding, but with eight or nine brown stripes placed at equal distances apart,-Zygnis striata, Fitz. We might separate from the rest a species whose carinated and pointed scales are nearly verticillate;(2) Lac. anguina, L. Lac. monodactyla, Lacep., Ann. Mus. II, lix, 2, and Vosmaer, Mono g. 177 4, f. 1, under the name of Serpent-Lizm·d. Its feet are merely small undivided spurs.-Inhabits the environs of the Cape of Good Hope. BIPEs, Lacep. A small genus, only differing from Seps in the entire absence of fore feet, having the scapulre and clavicles concealed beneath the skin, the hind feet alone being visible. There is but a step from it to .!lnguis. Some of them have a series of pores before the anus.(3) I dissected one of them brought from New-Holland by the late M. Peron, the Bipede Upidopode, Lacep., An. d u Mus. tom. IV, pl. lv, which has carinated scales on the back, and a tail twice the length of the body.( 4) Of its feet, nothing is externally visible but two small oblong and scaly plates; but by dissection we find a femur, a tibia, a fibula, and four metatarsal bones forming toes, but without phalanges. One of its lungs is half the size of the other. It lives in the mud. This series of pores is wanting in others. A small species, described a long time ago, is found at the Cape, .llnguia bipes, L.; Lacerta bipes, Gm.; Seb. I, lxxxvi, 3, each of whose feet is terminated by two unequal toes.(5) • (1.) Merrem, on the contrary, had made his genus SEPs from this single species. F1tzmger now calls it ZYGNIS, in imitation of Oken, and adds to it the Tridactylus decresiensis of Per. which is much more nearly allied to the Tetradactylus of the same island. (2) It is the genus MoNoDA.CTYLus, Merr., or CliAM.iESA.UnA, Fitz. (3) They form the genus PYGOPus, Merr. ( 4) The fig. of Lacep. is drawn from an individual the tail of which had been ~roken off and reproduced; we are very liable, generally speaking, to be mistaken m the proportionate length of the tail in all this class. (5) It is the genus DxPEs, Merr. or ScELOTES, Fitz. The Seps gronovien, or monodactyle of Daudin, of which Merrem has made his genus PrGoDACTnus, was m~rely a badly preserved specimen of the same, so that this genus must be str1cken out as Merrem anticipated. The Sepa sezlineata, Harl. &c. Nat. Sc. Phil. IV, pl. XTiii, f. 2, is a mere variety of it. VoL. II.-G \ |