194 SAURIA. 



FAM. VARANIDAE. 



Some of the species of this family attain a considerable size, being, 

 next to the crocodiles, the largest of the order of Saurians. 



The general aspect of their body is elongated, rounded, and without 

 dorsal crest. The legs, four in number, are stoutish ; the toes being 

 compressed or rounded, five in number, unequal, variable in length 

 according to the genera, and terminated by nails generally powerful. 

 The tail is somewhat compressed, hardly ever perfectly round, and 

 much longer than the body and head together ; oftentimes, provided 

 above with a keel formed by a double series of elevated scales. 



The head is separated from the body by a quite distinct neck. It 

 is covered above with small polygonal plates, flattened, if not entirely 

 smooth. The tongue is fleshy, elongated, slender, flattened upon its 

 base, deeply bifurcated anteriorly; the points diverging, and the whole 

 retractile into a sheath pretty much in the same manner as in the 

 serpents. The palate is always toothless. The maxillary teeth, the root 

 of which is flattened, are disposed upon one single row, and inserted 

 upon the inside of the jaws in a kind of groove, wanting of its inner 

 edge, and constituting, as it were, a common socket or alveola for all 

 the teeth belonging to one jawbone. The crown of these teeth is gene- 

 rally pointed or conical, and inclined backwards. 



The scales are placed side by side, unimbricated. On the back and 

 sides they are subtuberculous or rounded ; the centre being more ele- 

 vated than the disk, each of which being occasionally surrounded by 

 an annular series of small granules of great regularity and elegance. 

 They are disposed upon transverse or cross series, and sometimes upon 

 longitudinal series also. Beneath, we observe smooth and regular small 

 plates variously disposed according to the regions. There are no femo- 

 ral pores. On the tail, the scales are arranged in transverse or annular 

 series, preserving the same general character as those of the back and 

 belly, being a good deal larger and plate-like upon its inferior surface. 



The food of the ordinary varanids consists in large insects; the more 

 bulky species attacking likewise the small quadrupeds, the birds, rep- 

 tiles of other families, and fishes. 



There are, in this family, species which inhabit sandy and barren 

 districts away from the water, and others that frequent the margin of 



