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Show 154 DR. R. Vi. SHUFELDT ON [Apr. 1, are found to be largest on top of the head, more especially on the lateral parietal regions, and over the entire facio-frontal aspect; here, as in the case of the smaller mesial ones, they are crowded close together, are of varying outline, but in no specimen are they arranged upon any definite plan as they are in some other Lizards, in Lacerta for example. Moreover, they do not quite agree in any two specimens, a fact that, upon comparison, at once becomes evident. Tubercles of a similar character extend down upon either side of the head as far as the commissure of the gape, filling in the region between the eye and the aural entrance : these gradually become smaller as they near the throat, which latter space is entirely covered over by an even layer of closely-set tubercles of a very much smaller size and of a uniformly subcircular form. Here these peculiar scales are the smallest of the kind as compared with those anywhere else on the body of this reptile: they are all in contact with each other, unless the animal from some cause swells out its throat, when the skin may be seen in the evenly distributed interspaces. Upon studying the arrangement, number, and distribution of the circum-ocular, narial, and labial scales in these two specimens of mine, I find that in none of these particulars are they exactly alike. A large oblong rostral scute is present, with a smaller scute upon either side of it, while external to either of these is a quadrilateral sub-narial scute. Next follow the superior labials proper, the marginal ones being usually nine in number on either side, which become gradually smaller as we proceed from before backwards. Above the anterior moiety of these labials, extending between eye and nostril, there is another row of smaller size, some five or six in number, which I am of the opinion will be pretty constantly found in that locality. Of this latter row the largest scute is just posterior to the nostril, while the smallest and most posterior one, triangular in form, is wedged in just beneath the suborbital row. Three large tubercles is the rule for the supraciliary scutes, with four suborbitals, and either one or two small post- and preorbitals. Normally, again, there seem to be two anterior nasal scutes, with a large postnasal one, and commonly one wedged in above and between these two. Passing next to the arrangement of these upon the mandible, we find always present a fair-sized chin-scute, followed posteriorly by four mental scutes, on either side of the median line, while the lower labials seem to average fourteen in number. Between these latter and the mental scutes, the interval is filled in by three oblique rows of flat scutes, those of the larger size being in the most external row, while the smallest occupy the inner one, and these latter gradually merge into the area of small tubercles which overlay the throat and which have been already described above. W e may now turn our attention to the scutation of this reptile's body, and we find upon the dorsal aspect that the tubercles gradually diminish in size as we pass backwards from the occipital region, although they maintain very much the same character and arrangement. Soon, however, they commence to dispose themselves iu regular transverse rows and are of a pretty uniform size. This |
