

C \ rALOOUE OF SHIELD REPTILES. 



(Owen), uncinate process 

 ilu ■ i implicated abdominal aternum, in 



the i :i oopulatory organ, &o."— Otm- 



. 1867, p. L88. 



il the appearanoe of [izarda, but it wanta 



le "!' tin- rant) mod in oopulation, and 



: bat they have no relation to 



.. • \n:i. 8 Mag. Nat. Hist.' 1871, vii. 



p. 283), which are always (bond in Lizards, Snakes, and 

 ■..I tlir quadrate bones of the Bkull, as in 

 - and Tortoises, are suturally united to the skull, 

 and not aitienlated to it as in Snakes ami Lizards. 



The sexual organs of Reptiles have been misunderstood. 

 M it authors have considered Lizards and Snakes hail two 



> : hut the examination of the Monitors has shown 



that what ha\ Jled penes were only claspers, by 



which the male- held on during connexion, as in the Sharks 



kmong Bah, and also in Snakes and Lizards, 



which, like nearly all birds, except the Ducks, have no penis 



ntering organ. The Reptiles are variable in these par- 



ticul irs. The Tortoises and Crocodiles have an entering 



u and no claspers. The Amphisbanians, Snakes, and 



.-.< oo entering organ but distinct claspers. The 



. iccording to Dr. Gunther, have neither 



entering organ nor claspers. 



SPHENODON. 



I Quadrangular, covered with small scales. Throat 

 with a cross fold. Xape and back with a crest of cotn- 

 -. Body covered with small scales. Belly 

 underside of the tail with large squarish, keelless, o 

 Oat scales placed in cross series. Tail compressed, trian- 

 gular, a >vered with small scales, and with a ridge of large 

 compressed spines. Legs strong. Toes 5-5, short, strong, 

 cylindrical, slightly webbed at the base, covered above and 

 below with small scales. Claws short, blunt. Femoral 

 pores none. Preanal scales small, a few of them are 

 placed in the centre. 



Sphenodon, Gray, Zool. Miseell. p. 1 4, 1831, from skull (not 



Sphenodus). 

 Hatteria, Gray, Zool. Miseell. p. 72, March. 1842; Ann. 

 w. Nat. Hist. 1869, iii. p. 167; Cat. Liz. 1845, 



p. 249. 



Oiinther, Phil. Trans. 1867: Zool. Bee. 1869, p. 111. 

 Rhynchocephalus, Owen, Trans. Geol. Soc. 1845, vii. p. 64, 

 6. f. 5 & 7 i ,-kull) ; Cat. Osteol. Spec. Mus. Coll. 

 Surg. i. p. 142, 1853. 



The skull of this Lizard was described in 1831 in the 

 following words:-" In the skull of an animal allied to 



,i or Cromasty.v, in the College of Surgeons, 1 have 

 rved that the ramus (os cortypltmentaire, Cuv. Os. 

 Pea. Bg. o) of the lower jaw rubs against the lateral pro- 

 cessus of the pterygoid hones, so as to prevent tho lower 



jaVi from moving from side to side, and that in the species 

 Under consideration the hinder part of the upper jaw has 

 a series of teeth about half the length of the outor series 

 placed on a ridge just on the inner edge of the outer teeth, 

 leaving a groove between tho two sorics for the lower jaw 

 to fit into. This skull will doubtless form the type of a 

 new genus which I propose to call Sphenodon." 



Prof. Owen, eleven years afterwards, described and 

 figured the same skull in the Trans. Geol. Soc. vii. 1845, 

 p. 6 1, t. 6. f. 5 & 7, and again, twenty-two years after- 

 wards, in the Cat. Osteol. Spec. Mus. Coll. Surg. i. 1853, 

 p. 42, and gave it the name of Rhynchocephalus. Dr. Gun- 

 ther, as well as Prof. Owen, overlooked my first description. 

 Perhaps the Label which I had attached to the skull when 

 I examined and named it and the other Keptiles at the 

 request of Mr. Clift and his son, my hospital fellow student, 

 had been lost. Dr. Gunther evidently seems to have thought 

 the head was a modern acquisition when Prof. Owen de- 

 scribed it. 



Another skull in the British Museum was figured in the 

 'Zoology of the Erebus and Terror;' and the same skull 

 was also figured by Dr. Gunther as Hatteria punctata. 



1. Sphenodon pimctatiun. (Tuatera or Narara.) 



Olive ; sides and limbs with minute white specks, be- 

 neath yellowish ; the spines of the nuchal and dorsal 

 crests yellow, of the caudal brown. The scales of the back, 

 head, tail, and limbs small, granular, nearly uniform. The 

 irregular folds in the skin are fringed at the top with a 

 series of rather large scales ; an oblique ridge of larger 

 scales on each side of the base of the tail, and a few 

 shorter longitudinal ridges of rather smaller ones on each 

 side of the upper part of the tail. 



Sphenodon, Cray, Zool. Miseell. p. 13, 1S31 (skull only). 

 Hatteria punctata, Gray, Zool. Miseell. p. 72, 1842 ; Cat. 



Liz. Brit. Mus. p. 249, 1845 ; Zool, Erebus $ Terror, 



t. (animal and skull). 



Gunther, Phil. Trans. 1867 (anatomy). 

 Ehynchocephalus, Owen, Trans. Geol. Soc. vii. 1845, p. 64, 



t. 6. f. 5-7 (skull) ; Cat. Osteol. Sp>ec. Mus. Coll. Surg. i. 



p. 142, 1853 (skull only). 

 Monstrous Lizard, Cook's Third, Voyage, i. p. 153, 1785. 

 Tuatera or Narara, Dieffenb. New Zeal. ii. p. 205, 1843. 



Hub. New Zealand, Bay of Plenty. 



Dr. Dieffenbach having presented to the British Museum 



