24 REPTILIA. 



their eye, ear^ &c. are also similar, but their tongue is fleshy, 

 thick, non- extensible, and only emarginated at the tip. 



They may be divided into two sections ; in the first, or 

 that of the Agamians, there are no palatine teeth. In this 

 section we place the following genera, 



Stellio, Cuv. 



In addition to the general characters of the family of the Iguanida, 

 the tail is encircled by rings composed of large and frequently spiny 

 scales. The subgenera are as follows: 



CoRDYLUs, Gronov.(l) 



The tail, belly and back covered with large scales arranged in 

 transverse rows. The head, like that of the common lizards, is pro- 

 tected by a continuous bony buckler, and covered with plates. In 

 several species the points of the scales on the tail form spiny circles; 

 there are small spines also to those on the sides of the back, on the 

 shoulders, and outsides of the thighs, on which latter there is a line 

 of very large pores. 



The Cape of Good Hope produces several species long con- 

 founded under the name of Lacerta cordylus, L. These Saurians, 

 whose armour so completely defends them, are a little larger 

 than the common Green Lizard of Europe, and feed on insects. (2) 



ming'o, whose Inhabitants must have pronounced it Hiuana, or Jgoana. Accord- 

 ing to Bontius it originated in Java, where the natives call it Leguan. In this 

 case the Portuguese and Spaniards carried it to America transformed to Iguana. 

 They apply it there now to a Sauvegarde, as a true Iguana. This name, as well as. 

 that of Guano, has occasionally been given to Monitors of the eastern continent. 

 The reader of travels should bear this in mind; I even consider the Leguan of Bon- 

 tius as a Monitor. 



(1) According to Aristotle, "the Cordylus is the only animal possessing feet 

 and branchiae. It swims with its feet and tail, the latter of which, as far as large 

 things can be compared with small, is similar to that of a Silurus. This tail is soft 

 and broad. It has no fins: it lives in marshes, like the Frog: it is a quadruped, 

 and leaves the water: sometimes it is dried up and dies." 



It is evident that these characters can only belong to the larva of the aquatic 

 Salamander, as M. Schneider has very justly observed. Belon has described this 

 Salamander by the name of Cordyle, but his printer, by mistake, annexed to it the 

 figure of the Lac. nihtica., L. Rondelet has applied this name to the great Stellio 

 of Egypt, or Caudiverbera of B61on, mistaking the ear, in the figure, for a gill 

 opening. Between Rondelet and Llnnasus, then, Cordylus has passed for the 

 synonyme of the Caudiverbera. Its special application to the above subgenus is alto- 

 gether arbitrary. Merrem has changed it to Zondhds. 



(2) Daudin has referred several synonymes of Stellio to Cordylus, just as he has 



