OCR Text |
Show 1G4 DR. J. ANDERSON ON INDIAN REPTILES. [Feb. 21, one. This is the length of the much-bleached specimen in this museum labelled E. macularius, from the Salt range, where it was discovered by Mr. Theobald, who informed Mr. Blyth that " the species attains more than double the size, and when alive is remarkable for the beauty of its prevailing rosy carneous hue." Blyth had more than one specimen before him when he wrote; and as he had already identified E. hardwickii (Gymnodactylus lunatus, Blyth * ) , he was in a position to judge of the specific distinctness of the two. The type specimen, however, is the only one 1 have been able to discover. Theobald recognized it two years after he discovered it, and unhesitatingly referred it to E. macularius, although, as has been already mentioned, the specimen is of uniform colour throughout. This is a true Eublepharis, with the fingers and toes and eyelids of that genus. It is distinguished from E. hardwickii by its finely granular skin, much more widely separated oval tubercles, and longer fingers. In E. hardwickii the large tubercles on the surface of the head are not separated by smaller ones, but are hexagonal and in close apposition, producing a tessellated appearance. In E. macularius, however, they are widely separated from each other by the granules as far forward as the front of the eye. This form appears to be the western representative in India of E. hardwickii, which is spread over the eastern half of India from Madras to the south, and through Bengal to Chittagong. Two of the museum specimens of E. hardwickii are from Chaibassa; and I have since received a specimen from the neighbourhood of Calcutta. DRACO DUSSUMIERI, D, & B.; Gthr. I. c. pp. 125, 126. In three specimens from Travancore the scales have no trace of keels; and in one the membrane is strongly reticulated to the sides, the external portion being darkest, and bordered by a fringe-like band of lighter streaked longitudinally. In others the inner half of the membrane is almost immaculate and light-coloured. The pouch when distended is directed forwards at an acute angle to the long axis of the body. JAPALURA VARIEGATA, Gray ; Gthr. I.e. p. 133. Japalura microlepis, Jerdon, Proc. As. Soc. 1870, p. 76 (female). Japaluraplanidorsata, Jerdon, ibid. p. 76 (young). I have examined twenty-one specimens of this species, of all ages and both sexes, from one locality ; and after dissection I find that all the small-scaled individuals are females, and that those with a double series of very slightly enlarged keeled scales on the back on either side of the mesial line, separated from it by only one row of mesial scales, but on the neck by four or five, are young. At first I was near following Dr. Jerdon in regarding the small-scaled specimens with the dorsal double row of enlarged scales as specifically distinct from the large-scaled individuals ; but further materials have led me * Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xvi. p. 633, and xxiii. p. 210. |