22 REPTILIA. 



same subdivision, have blackish stripes on the sides of the back, 



a fact worth remembering' to avoid an undue multiplication of 



species. (l) 



We may separate from the Ameivas certain species, all the scales 



of whose belly, legs, and tail, are carinated,(2) and others in which 



even those on the back are similarly relieved, so that the flanks only 



are granulated. (3) A collar under the neck also approximates these 



species to the lizards. (4) The 



LacertAj properly so called, 



Or true Lizards, form the second genus of the Lacertians. The ex- 

 tremity of their palate is armed with two rows of teeth, and they 

 are otherwise distinguished from the Ameivas and Sauvegardes by 

 a collar under the neck, formed of a transverse row of large scales, 

 separated from those on the belly by a space covered with small 

 ones only, like those under the throat; and by the circumstance that 

 a part of the cranium projects over their temples and orbits, so as 

 to furnish the whole top of the head with a bony buckler. 



(1) Such, it appears to me, is the Teyiis ocellifer, Spix, xxv. 



Add the Am. litterata, Daud. Seb., I, Ixxxiii; Jim. cceruleocephala, Id. Seb. I, 

 xci, 3; .im. laterisiriga, Cuv. Seb. I, xc, 7; Am. lemniscata {Lacert. lemnis, Gm.), 

 Seb. I, xcii, 4; Teius irit^iiatus, Spix, xxi, 2; T. cyanomelas, Pr. Max. 

 Liv. V. [Add Jim. sex-lineata, Catesb. 68. Jim, Ed."] 



It is impossible to say from what confusion of synonymes Daud. has placed the 

 Am. litterata in Germany; like all the others, it is from America. The Am. gi'a- 

 phique, Daud. Seb. I, Ixxxv, 2, 4, is the Dotted Monitor; his Am. argus, Seb. I, 

 Ixxxv, 3, is the 3Tu7i. cepedien,- his goitreux, Seb. II, ciii, 3, 4, does not differ from 

 the litterata; finally, his tete rouge, Seb. I, xci, 1, 2, is a common Green Lizard. 

 He was probably led into error by the coloured plates of Seba. The Lac. 5-li- 

 neata appears to me to be a L. coeruleocephala, a part of whose broken tail had 

 grown again with small scales, as is always the case when that accident happens; 

 the axis of this new portion of the tail is always, also, a cartilaginous stem with- 

 out vertebrse. It is impossible to characterize species by similar accidental cir- 

 cumstances, as Merrem has done in his Teyus monitor and cyaneus. 



(2) In one sex of one of these species, there are two small spines on each side 

 of, the anus, which circumstance gave rise to the genus Centroptx of Spix, 

 XXII, 2. 



(3) The Lezard stri^ of Surinam, Daud., Ill, p. 347, of which Fitzinger makes 

 his genus Psetido-Ameiva. 



(4) It appears to me that even the Centropyx has palatine teeth; these two 

 sorts of Lizards, liowever, have the head of an Amelva, no bone on the oi-bit, &c. 

 N.B. Fitzinger makes a genus (Tetus) of the Lezard teyou, Daud. which should 

 have but four toes to the hind feet; its only foundation, liowever, is an imperfect 

 description of Azzara, and it does not seem to me sufficiently authentic. 



