1. Z0NURTJ9. 255 



anal plates small, equal, except two marginals a little longer. 

 Femoral pores seven on each side. Caudal whorls very spinous, 

 the scales not serrate, but striate on the surface. Eelow and upper 

 lip to ear yellow ; above rich brown, with several indistinct blackish 

 cross shades ; head above wood-brown. 



milliin. millim. 



From snout to vent . . 02 Fore limb 32 



From snout to ear . . 44 Hind limb 42 



Madagascar. 



♦o" 



3. Zonurus cataphractus. 



Cordylus cataphractus, Boie, N. Acta Ac. Leop.-Carol, xiv. 1828, i. 



p. 140; Smith, 111. 8. Afr., Rcpt. pi. xxix. & xxx. fig. 9. 

 Zonurus cordylus, Schley. Tijdschr. Nat. Gesch. Phys. i. 1834, p. 211, 



pi. vii. fig. '•'>. 

 C\)rdyhis uebulosus, S7nith, May. N. H. (2) ii. 1838, p. 31. 

 Zonurus cataphractu?, Dum. Sf Bihr. v. p. 3-jo. 



Head triangular, much depressed, as broad as long in the adult ; 

 snout very short. Hcad-sliields very rugose ; nasals in contact, much 

 swollen, jiierced in the centre ; frontonasal and praefrontaLssubequal, 

 on a line, the former pentagonal, its anterior angle wedged in 

 between the nasals, its posterior border forming a suture with the 

 frontal ; latter seven-sided, a little wider anteriorly ; interparietal 

 inclosed between the two pairs of parietals, of which the posterior 

 is the lai'gest ; a row of six keeled occipitals ; temporals large, 

 striated and keeled, in three longitudinal series ; three temporal 

 spines, upper smallest but sharpest ; four supraoculars ; three supra- 

 ciliaries ; lower eyelid opaque ; loreal very smaU, or absent ; a large 

 prajorbital ; three infraorbitals ; six or seven upper labials, the three 

 posterior largest and keeled ; rostral pentagonal, twice and a half 

 as broad as high. Mental pentagonal ; six lower labials, fifth 

 largest, four posterior keeled ; a row of five large shields bordering 

 the lower labials ; four small median chin-shields ; gular scales 

 small, rather irregular, subquadrangular, smooth, except those on 

 the sides, which are feebly keeled ; four or five curved rows of 

 smooth large scales under the neck ; sides of neck with large spines. 

 Dorsal scales large, forming regular transverse series ; these scales 

 rough, elongate quadrangular, serrate posteriorly, keeled. On the 

 sides the keel becomes stronger and ends in a strong spine ; lateral 

 scales otherwise not distinguished from the dorsals. A strong lateral 

 fold. The dorsal scales form fifteen or sixteen transverse rows from 

 occiput to base of tail ; in the middle of the body a series contains 

 twenty scales, counting from the lateral fold. Ventral scales quad- 

 rangular, longer than broad, not imbricate, smooth, forming regular 

 transverse series ; latter twenty to twenty-two, the largest contain- 

 ing twenty scales. A pair of enlarged posterior prix^anal scales. 

 I.imbs above with large spinose imbricate keeled scales, inferiorly 

 with smooth or feebly keeled ones ; thirteen to sixteen femoral 



