MONITORS. Ill 



Family V. Varanid.e. 



{Monitors.) 



These are Lizards of large size, in some 

 respects approaching the Crocodiles. MM. Du- 

 meril and Bibron, who designate them by the 

 appellation of Broad-backed Saurians, assign to 

 them the following characters. They have the 

 body very much elongated, rounded, and without 

 a dorsal crest, supported on strong legs and feet, 

 with distinct and very long, but unequal toes. 

 The tail is slightly compressed, and at least twice 

 as long as the trunk. The skin is furnished with 

 enchased scales, which are tuberculous, projecting, 

 rounded upon the head, as well as upon the back 

 and sides, always distributed in rings or circular 

 bands, parallel under the belly and round the 

 tail. The tongue is protractile, fleshy, and simi- 

 lar to that of the Serpents, — that is to say, capable 

 of elongation, and of being withdrawal into a 

 sheath, — narrow and flattened at the base, and 

 deeply divided and separated at the extremity 

 into two points. 



They are distinguished from the other Families 

 by evident and easily seized peculiarities. From 

 the Crocodilidce, in the toes which are all fur- 

 nished with claws, and never palmated at the 

 base ; in the cutaneous tubercles, which are neither 

 square nor furnished with projecting ridges ; in 

 the protractile tongue ; in the form of the teeth, 

 the pupils, the auditory conduits, and especially 

 in the male genital organs, which are double. 

 From the ChameleonidcE , because their tongue is 



