AGAMIDJB. 251 



more distinctly incised in the herbivorous genera Lophura, Liolepis, 

 and Uromastix. 



Femoral and prseanal pores are absent in the majority of the 

 genera ; it is a remarkable fact that they exist, at least in the 

 males, in all Australian genera but one ( Ohelosania, known as yet 

 from a unique specimen), whereas they are missing in all others 

 except Uromastix and Liolepis. There are no large symmetrical 

 plates on the head or on the belly ; and ornamental appendages, such 

 as crests, gular pouches, &c., are frequently present, either in the 

 males only or in both sexes. The tail is usually long and not 

 fragile ; it is prehensile only in the genus Goplwtis, and some 

 Phrynocephali have the curious faculty of curling upwards the 

 extremity of that organ. The digits are usually keeled inferiorly 

 or denticulated laterally. The shape of the body as well as the 

 scaling vary considerably according to the genera and in adaptation 

 to the modes of life. Generally speaking, ground Agamoids have 

 the body depressed and arboreal compressed; but a division of 

 the genera into terrestrial and arboreal, which has hitherto been 

 almost generally accepted, must be given up as impracticable and 

 unnatural. Most Agamoids are exclusively insectivorous ; Lophura, 

 lAolepis, and Uromastix are horbi- or frugivorous, while some 

 species of Agama have a mixed diet ; again, a systematic division into 

 insectivorous and herbivorous, as has been proposed by Theobald, 

 would be as unsatisfactory as that into terrestrial and arboreal. 



Leaving out the strongly specialized genera Draco and Moloch, all 

 the forms pass very gradually one into another in different direc- 

 tions, rendering a sharp generic division, and stiU more a serial 

 arrangement, a matter of great difficulty. 



The Agamidce inhabit Africa, Asia, Australia, and Polynesia : 

 they are most numerous in species as well as in genera in the Indian 

 Eegion ; in Africa they are represented by only three genera, viz. 

 Agama, Aporoscelis, and, in the northern parts, Uromastix. Four 

 species extend slightly beyond the limits of Asia and Africa into 

 South-eastern Europe. They are absent from Madagascar and New 

 Zealand. 



Synopsis of the Genera. 

 I. Mouth large ; teeth erect in both jaws. 

 A. Incisors smaU, conical. 



1. No true § praeanal or femoral pores. 



a. Ribs much prolonged, supporting a wing-like dermal 



expansion 1. Draco, p. 253. 



b. No wing-like lateral expansion. 



a. Body not depressed. ;• 



* Four toes only .... 2. Sitana, p. 270. 



§ "True" by opposition to the callous pore-like swellings of the prseanal 

 scales of the males in the genera Agama and Aporoscelis. 



