OCR Text |
Show APPENDIX a- B*# TILB6. 848 liguYevatl of which are drawn of natural size. The tail is of the length of the body, the head excluded. * The latter is oral, broader than high ;• its summit being convex, and its sntrat truncated. * ' It is covered with small, irregular, and polygonal plates, larger on the middle line of the skull than above the eye, the nose, and the nape. Thfcre is a supraorbital oarina, with small elongated plates, scarcely to be seen With the naked eye. The infraorbital plates are less numerous, but longer. The eyes occupy the middle of the letfgth of the head. The eyelids^ are bordered by~ a row of minute and pointed plates; forming a . serrated edge.' The nostrils are ftearer the end of thd snojit than the eye. The ahgle of the mouth extends to the posterior rim of the orbit- TW upper jaw is bor*- dered with a . row of small, very elongated plates, obliquely imbricated. Margining the- lower jaw there are two TOWS of small'angular plates, the larger ones being & t the angle of the mouth* There is a single row of Small conical teeth on both jaws; thosd in front are acute and slightly recurved; those behind stouter and erect, with a carina separating the rounded crown from the body of the tooth. The posterior extremity of the tongue has a semilunar notch. As observed in the generic paragraph, there are no external auditory apertures; the tympanum is covered by scale* altogether similar to those of the neck. On both sides of the neck and immediately behind the angle of the mouth, is a fold of the skin, which vanishes in a depression under the head. Farther backward, and on the breast, is situated another fold, constituting an elegant neck ring, which, however, does Hot extend higher thafe , the shoulders* The anterior legs ate shorter and more slender than the posterior. There are five toes, similar in each pair of limbs, elongated, slender, terminated by a compressed and recurved nail. The toes and nails of the posterior limb, feowevdr, are a little longer in pro* portion to the limbs themselves. The fourth toe is the longest, the two external ones the shortest, the second and third nearly equal. There are eleven femoral pores on each thigh. Th$ scales are slighty imbricated, subcarinated on the back and Sides, smooth' underneath. They are smaller on the neck and at the base of the limbs than on the sides and back. Those oft tfcd tail are indistinctly verticillated. The smallest ones are found under the head, in the region of the groins and behind the vent; they are larger - on the abdomen than under- the tail. The toes. are entirely covered with scales. |