SAURIANS. ' 19 



wliicli is rouncl, and nowise compressed, furnished, as well as the helly, 

 with transverse rows of square scales; those on the helly are more broad 

 than long. They are American Lizards, tolerably similar, externally, 

 to those which represent them in Europe ; but besides the want of molars, 

 most of them have no collar, and all the scales of the throat are small; 

 their head also is more pyramidal than that of the European Lizards, and 

 they have not, like the latter, a bony plate on the orbit. 



Several species have been confounded under the name of Laccrta 

 ameiva, some of which it is still very difficult to distinguish. The 

 most common, Tcyus ameiva, Spix, XXIII; Pr. Max. de Wied. 

 liv. V, is a foot long or more ; green ; the back more or less dotted 

 and spotted with black, and vertical rows of white ocellated spots 

 bordered with black, on the flanks. 



There is another, Teyus cyaneus, Merr. ; Lacep. I, xxxi, Seb. 

 II, cv, 2, about the same size, of a bluish colour, with round white 

 spots scattered over the flanks and sometimes on the body. The 

 young of these animals, and of some others of the same subdivision, 

 have blackish stripes on the sides of the back, a fact worth remem- 

 bering to avoid an undue multiplication of species*. 



We may separate from the Ameivas certain species, all the scales of 

 whose belly, legs, and tail, are carinated'j-, and others in which even 

 those on the back are similarly relieved, so that the flanks only are granu- 

 lated J. A collar under the neck also approximates these species to the 

 lizards §. 



The Lizards, properly so called. 



Form the second genus of the Lizards. They have the bottom of their 

 palate armed with two rows of teeth, and they are otherwise distinguished 



* Such, it appears to me, is the Teyus ocelli fer, Spix, xxv. 



Add the Am. litterata, Daud. Seb. I, Ixxxiii; — Am. coeruleocepJiala, Id. Seb. T, xci, 

 3; — Am. lateristriga, Cuv. Seb. I, xe, 7; — Am. lemniscata {Lacert. lemnis, Gm.), Seb. 

 I, xeii, 4; — Teius tritaniatus, Spix, xxi, 2; — T. cyanomelas, Pr. Max. Liv. v. [Add, 

 Am. sex-lineata, Catesb. 68. — Eng. Ed.] 



It is impossible to say from what confusion of synonymes Daud. has placed the 

 Am. litterata in Germany; like all the others, it is from America. The Avi. gra- 

 phique, Daud. Seb. I, Ixxxv, 2, 4, is the Dotted Monitor; his Am. argns, Seb. I, 

 Ixxxv. 3, is the Mon. cepedien ; his goitretix, Seb. 11, ciii, 3, 4, does not differ from 

 the litterata; finally, his tete rouge, Seb. I, xci, 1, 2, is a common Green Lizard. He 

 was probably led into error by the coloured plates of Seba. The Lac. b-Uneata 

 appears to me to be a L. cocruleocephala, a part of whose broken tail had grown again 

 with sm.all scales, as is always the case when that accident happens; the axis of this 

 new portion of the tail is always, also, a cartilaginous stem without vertebrae. It is 

 impossible to characterize species by similar accidental circumstances, as Merrem 

 has done in his Teyus monitor and cyaneus. 



f In one sex of one of these species, there are two small spines on each side of the 

 anus, which circumstance gave rise to the genus Centropyx of Spix, XXII, 2. 



J The Lizard strie of Surinam, Daud. Ill, p. 347, of which Fitzinger makes his 

 genus Pseudo-Ameiva. 



§ It appears to me that even the Centropyx has palatine teeth: these two sorts of 

 Lizards, however, have the head of an Ameiva, no bone on the orbit. &c. N. B. Fitz- 

 inger makes a genus (Teyus) of the Lezard teyou, Daud., which should have but 

 four toes to the hind feet; its only foundation, however, is an imperfect description 

 of Azzara, and it does not seem to me sufficiently authentic. 

 c 2 



