REPTILES. 



51 



little outwards. Eyes rather large, the upper eyelids forming perfect flaps, which entirely 

 cover the eyes. Body rounded, very broad. The shoulders and thighs wholly concealed by 

 the skin of the body. Limbs very short. The anterior feet very broad. The toes somewhat 

 depressed, very short, bordered with a fold of skin. Hinder feet with the toes more depressed 

 and more distinctly bordered. Back covered with small glands. 

 Colour. — The colour of the upper surface is dark olive, becoming lighter at the sides, and having 

 numerous dark brown spots, which are round, oval, elliptical, or irregular, of very various sizes, 

 placed somewhat symmetrically, and each bordered with a whitish or yellow line. Beneath 

 pale, excepting the throat, which is black. 



I have ventured to consider this remarkable amphibian as specifically distinct 

 from U. marmoratum of Bibron ; a conclusion to which I have been almost impera- 

 tively led, by the fact of its inhabiting a different hemisphere from all known spe- 

 cimens of that species. The other was found by M. Leschenault in the interior of 

 the peninsula of India : the specimen from which the present description is taken 

 was obtained by Mr. Darwin at Buenos Ayres. Notwithstanding the similarity of 

 the two species, which is so great as to have led Mons. Bibron to consider them as 

 identical, I could not assent to such an anomaly as the existence of an animal, at 

 once so rare and possessed of such limited powers of locomotion, in two regions 

 so widely remote. I have not the opportunity of comparing the specimens of 

 the former species with the present, but, even from Mons. Bibron's description, I 

 believe that I can discover sufficient discrepancies between the animals, to bear 

 me out in the view I have taken. These discrepancies 1 venture to place in the 

 following tabular view, and leave zoologists to form their own conclusions. 



UPERODON MARMORATUM. 



" La tete offre en arriere une largeur a peu 

 pres egale a son longueur totale, laquelle entre 

 pour le quart environ dans I'etendue de I'ani- 

 mal." 



" On pourrait considerer la pcau comme 

 etant parfaitement lisse, si I'on ne voyait eparses 

 sur le dessus du tronc un certain nombre de 

 verrues glanduleuses d'un assez grand diametre 

 relativement a la grosseur de I'animal, mais fort 

 peu saillantes ou a peine convexes." 



" Les parties superieures de ce Batracien 

 presentent sur un fond olivatre, d'enormes 

 taches brunes, toides conjluentes, ou s'anastomosaiit 

 diversement"* 



UPERODON ORNATUM. 



Head fully half as broad again as it is long, 

 and equal in breadth to half the total length of 

 the animal. 



Back covered with numerous swa/Z glandular 

 tubercles, notably elevated. 



All the spots on the back are quite distinct, 

 not in any way passing into each other or con- 

 nected, and each encircled by a white line. 



* Bibr. Rept. VIIL p. 749. 



