OCR Text |
Show 768 MR. E. E. AUSTEN ON A RECENT ZOOLOGICAL [June 16, the inner digit, eight or nine under the fourth ; limbs with dermal folds, the largest extending from the vent to the fifth toe. Tail much depressed, bordered on each side by a broad, entire, dermal fold with fringed edge. Rostral quadrangular, broader than deep ; nostril pierced between the rostral and four scales ; 12 upper and 10 lower labials ; symphysial triangular; two pairs of chin-shields, the median forming a suture behind the symphysial. Head, back, and limbs covered with small granules, largest on the snout; occiput and back with numerous small, round, smooth tubercles; ventral scales small, cycloid, imbricate, smooth. Tail covered with small granular scales, the muscular portion with transverse rows of small smooth tubercles above, with a series of transverse shields beneath. Grey above, speckled with brown, with quadrangular dark spots disposed in pairs along the back, connected by brownish bands and wavy transverse lines, and confluent into cross-bars on the tail; a dark streak on each side of the head, passing through the eye; pale yellow beneath, speckled with blackish on the sides, the muscular portion of the tail coral-red. " Iris golden brown." millim. millim. Fore limb 17 Hind limb 21 Tail 56 Total length 115 Head 16 Width of head 9 Body 43 The single specimen is a female. 9. Notes on a Recent Zoological Expedition on the Lower Amazon. By E. E. A U S T E N , Zoological Department, British Museum. [Received June 16, 1896.] In the autumn of last year Mr. Alexander Siemens, of the firm of Messrs. Siemens, Bros. & Co., Limited, of Woolwich, being about to proceed to tbe Amazon in command of an expedition for the purpose of laying a telegraph-cable from Para to Manaos, and having been much interested bv the perusal of the well-known works of Bates and Wallace on the fauna of this particular region of the South-American continent, thought that the expedition would afford an excellent opportunity of increasing the national collections. Mr. Siemens accordingly made a most public-spirited offer to the Trustees of the British Museum to the effect that should they desire to avail themselves of the opportunity, he would be pleased to take on board his ship, the cable s.s. ' Faraday, a member of the Museum staff iu order to make collections at the various localities on the river with which telegraphic connection would have to be effected. Needless to say, the Trustees accepted the offer in the spirit in which it was made, and through the |