STELLIO TUBERCULATUS. 157 



It is not uncommon also on the edges of the Nilgherries up to the height of nearly 6000 feet. 

 Mr. W. Theobald has collected specimens from Pind Dadun Khan. 



It attains to a length of from 15 to 16 inches, of which the tail takes 11 inches. 



STELLIO, Baud, 



Tympanum naked. Body depressed, covered above and laterally with 

 scales unequal in size and shape ; tail rounded, taperinj^, surrounded by 

 rings of more or less prominent spinous scales. Throat with a cross fold ; 

 no gular sac ; nuchal crest none or rudimentary ; ventral scales small, 

 smooth ; femoral and preeanal pores none. 



We refer to this genus not only the African type, Stellio cordylinus, distinguished by the 

 large spinous scales of the tail, but also an Indian lizard, Laudakia tuherculata. Gray, in 

 which the caudal spines are reduced to prominent keels of the scales. The latter agrees in 

 this respect with a third species of Stellio, the St. cyanogaster of Riippell, from Arabia, 

 which, however, has a small crest on the neck. These lizards have no true prseanal pores* ; 

 but the epidermis of all the scales in the preeanal region becomes thickened, callous, and of 

 a brown colour in the males during the breeding-season. 



Only one species is known from British India. 



Stellio tuberculatus. 



Agama tubercxilata, Gray, III. Ind. Zool. c. fig. mediocri. Bum. Sf Bibr, iv. p. 488. 



Laudakia tiiberculata, Gray, Lizards, p. 254. 



? Stellio indicus, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xxii. p. 646. 



BarycepLalus sykesii, Gunth. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1860, p. 150. pi. 25. fig. A. 



The head is rather depressed and flat, with the canthus rostralis distinct and with the 

 snout of moderate length ; it is covered above with numerous very small shields ; there is a 

 shield in the middle of the occipital region, which is rather larger than the others, but it is 

 not present in all the specimens ; a series of slightly keeled shields runs along the median 

 line of the snout. The width of the space between the bony orbits is one-half that of the 

 upper eyelid. The rostral shield is low, twice as broad as high : there are twelve upper 



* Gray and Bibron speak of preeanal pores in Laudakia tuberculata, which is the reason of my not 

 having at first recognized this species, and, considering it as a new form, I described it as Barycephalns 

 sykesii. 



