Zoology.-] NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. [ReptiUs. 



Plate 181. 



TYMPANOCRYPTIS LINE AT A (Peters). 



The White-streaked Earless Lizard. 



[Genus TYMPANOCRYPTIS (Peters). (Sub-kingdom Vertebrata. Class ReptiUa. 

 Order Sauria. Sub-order Pachyglossa». Tribe Strobilosaura. Family Agamidje.) 



Gen. Char. — Head short, rounded ; no external ear drum. Body broad, depressed ; tail 

 long, tapering, round. Scales of back irregularly flat, scale-shaped, or spinose; no dorsal crest. 

 No gular sack ; a strong transverse gular fold ; one preanal pore on each side, sometimes absent 

 in female ; no femoral pores. Australia.] 



Description. — Body short, thick, fusiform ; tail little long-er than the head 

 and body. When the hind leg is drawn forward along' the side, the longest toe 

 reaches the shoulder. Hea'd short, lilunt, semioval, with a convex profile arched 

 downwards from the occiput; nostril in a large nasal plate, a little nearer to the 

 eye than to the tip of the snout. Scales of head irregular in size and shape, very 

 strongly keeled ; those of back strongly keeled, chiefly small and rhombic, but with 

 numerous larger, conical, compressed, arched, spinose scales, very irregularly 

 scattered, not forming distinct continuous keels, except one from end of mouth to 

 shoulder, and a shorter and less distinct one over its hinder half; a strong ridge- 

 like fold from axil to thigh on each side ; scales of throat, belly, and underside of 

 thighs rhombic, posterior angle prominent and middle slightly convex but not dis- 

 tinctly keeled ; scales of upper and under sides of tail very strongly keeled, forming 

 continuous ridges. Colour : Pale brown above, ashy white below ; head, two rows 

 of large quadrate spots along back, and transverse bands on upper surface of legs 

 and thighs and across the tail, of dark rich chocolate-brown, becoming paler on 

 posterior half of tail, and forming ashy brown, irregular, transverse bands on sides; 

 five narrow white lines, one in middle of back from occiput to base of tail, one on 

 each side (often interrupted) from head to anterior third of tail, and one on each 

 side, coinciding with the prominent lateral fold from axil to thigh ; a conspicuous, 

 narrow, whitish, open chevron mark crosses the head from a little behind middle of 

 each eye, with a round white spot in front of it, and one smaller near tip of snout 

 and one on each side ; a few irregular whitish marks on sides and back of head. 

 Throat strongly mottled with broad, irregularly flexuous, longitudinal, bla'ckish bands; 

 belly more faintly mottled or plain ashy white. Measurements: Total length, 

 4 in. 8 lines ; length of head, 6^ lines ; width of head, 6 lines ; width of body, 

 7 lines; length of body, 1 in. 8 lines; length of tail, 2 in. 5^ lines; length of fore 

 limb, 11 lines; length of hind limb, 1 in. 3 lines; from axil to thigh, 1 in. 1 line. 



Reference. — Peters Monats Bericht. Berlin Akad., 1863, p. 230. 



The species of Tympanocryptis are remarkably distinguislied 

 from all of the genus Grammatophora or Amp)Mholurus by the ear- 

 openings being absent or entirely concealed by being covered over 

 by the ordinary scales of the adjacent parts of the head. The 



Vol, II.— Decade Xl.y.— 2b. ' [ 297 ] 



