310 CLASS xy. 



Compare on the internal structure of this genus W. Veolik. Natuur-en 

 ontleedkundige OpmerHngen over den Chameleon. Met. PI. Amsterdam, 

 1827, 8vo. See, also, Aug. Ddmeeil Famille des Cameleoniens, Archives 

 du Mus. d'ffist. nat. vi. 1852, pp. 257—264, PI. 21, 22. 



Sp. Chamaleon vulgaris Cuv., Lacerta chamceleon L. (excl. of some citations), 

 Chamcdeon carinatus Merr., Guerin Iconogr., Rept. PI. 15, fig. r ; figured 

 in its different colours in my Icones ad iUmtrandas color is mutationes in 

 Chamceleonte, L. B. 1831, 4to; see also E. Bruecke Untersuchungen iiber 

 den Farbenwechsel des africanischen Chamceleons, Denhschr. der math, 

 natunv. Classe der Kaiserl. Ahad. ivter Bd. Wien, 1852; — Chainceleon 

 hifidus Brongn., Essai classif. nat. des Rept. PI. 11. fig. 7, Daud. Rept. iv. 

 PI. 54, East Indies, Mauritius, Madagascar (and New Holland X) ; remark- 

 able from the two processes projecting in front of the head, formed by the 

 frontal and upper jaw-bones ; see Cuv. Rech. sur les ossein, foss. v. 2, PI. 

 16, figs. 30, 32. Another species from Western Africa, near the Equator, 

 which I know only from the description, diflfers by a crest on the back, 

 which, as in Basiliscus and Hlstiurus, is supported by the spinous processes 

 of the vertebrae : Chamceleon cristatus Stutchbury, Trans. Linn. Soc. xvii. 

 Tab. 10, p. 361. 



Family XXI. Ascalohotce. Body depressed, covered with 

 small imbricate scales and often with scattered tubercles ; scales of 

 back smaller, of abdomen and feet a little larger. Head depressed, 

 large, with marginal scutes at each jaw, elsewhere entirely scaly. 

 Tongue short, fleshy, papillose, with apex free, obtuse, scarcely 

 emarginate. Aperture of auditory passage distinct; membrane of 

 tympanum depressed. Palatine teeth none, maxillary thin, subu- 

 late, numerous, adhering to the internal margin of jaws. Eyes 

 large, covered by an immoveable eye-lid as though by a trans- 

 parent capsule; pupil often oblong, vertical. Tail moderate. 

 Feet short, pentadactylous, the anterior sometimes with thumb 

 very short, the rest of fingers subequal. (Femoral pores in some 

 distinct, in most none.) 



The Gecko'id Lizards have many remarkable characters by which 

 they are distinguished from the other families of this order, and, 

 like the Chameleons, form an independent group. The eyes, as 

 J. Mueller pointed out, are, as in the serpents, covered by a trans- 

 parent eye-lid, behind which the eye has a free motion. These 

 animals have mostly a leaf-like expansion at the toes which is 

 folded below, and the nails (which, however, in some species are 

 wanting on some of the toes or even altogether) are capable of retrac- 

 tion, as in cats. 



These animals feed on insects. The name Gecko is derived from 

 the sound which they make, and which in one or more Indian 



