LACEETID^. 79 



Ceylon, Nepal and Southern China to the Mahiy Peninsula 

 ■and Archipelago. 



Found in marshy localities or on trees overhanging rivers : 

 enter the water readily. Lays its eggs in burrows or in liollow 

 tree-trunks. By far tlie commonest of the Malay Varanid*. 



Family LACERTID^. 



Skull with bony postorbital and postfronto-s([uamosal arches, 

 with bony dermal plates rooting over the supratemporal fosste ; 

 praemaxillary single ; nasals distinct ; parietal single ; a fibro- 

 cartilaginous interorbital septum; a columella cranii. Dentition 

 pleurodont ; palate often toothed. Clavicle dilated and perforated 

 proxiinally ; interclavicle cruciform. 



Tongue Hat, elongate, bifid in front, covered with rhomboidal 

 scale-like imbricate papillae or oblique plicae converging forwards. 

 Pupil round ; eyelids well developed. Head covered with large 

 symmetrical shields. Ventral scales large, shield-like, forming 

 longitudinal and transverse series, distinguished from the lateral 

 scales. Limbs well developed. Femoral or inguinal pores usually 

 present. Tail long, fragile. 



•"^The family of true Lizards, mostly small, terrestrial creatures, 

 laying eggs with parchment-like shell or bringing forth their 

 young alive, is spread all over Europe, Asia, and Africa, but in 

 the Malay region it is only represented by one species of the 

 aberrant genus Tacliydromus. 



Genus TACHYDROMUS. 

 Daudin, Hist. Eept. iii, p. 251 (1802). 



Head-shields normal. Nostril pierced between two nasals and 

 the first labial. A more or less distinct collar. Back covered 

 with large, rhomboidal, keeled shields forming longitudinal series ; 

 flanks granular ; ventral shields rhomboidal, imbricate, all or part 

 keeled. Digits subcylindrical, with smooth, tubercular lamellae 

 below. Inguinal pores. Tail extremely long, cylindrical. 



Eastern Asia. Only one species in the Malay Peninsula. 



80. Tachydromus sexlineatus. 



Daud. t. c. p. 256, pi. xxxix; Giiiith. Kept. Brit. Ind. p. 69, pi. viii, 

 fig. C (1864) ; Boiileno-. Cat. Liz. iii, p. 4 (1887) ; id. Faun. Brit. 

 Ind., Eept. p. 109 (1890) ; Laidlaw, P. Z. S. 1901, i, p. 310. 



Supraoculars in contact with the supraciliaries ; the large 

 anterior supraocular in contact with the loreal ; tem])oral scales 

 strongly keeled. 6 or 8 longitudinal series of strongly keeled 

 shields on the nape, 4 on the back, median pair largest ; 10 or 12 



