342 Zoological Society : — 



graph, published in the * Catalogue of Lizards in the British Museum/ 

 printed in 1845, I described eighteen species; the present revision 

 contains thirty, distributed into fourteen genera. 



Since the above Monograph, Dr. Hallowell has described three or 

 four species from West Africa, in the * Journal' and * Proceedings' of 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia ; but unfortunately 

 I have not been able to make any of the specimens in the Museum 

 collection agree with his descriptions. M. A. Dumeril, in the 'Ar- 

 chives du Museum,' has described and figured two new species, and 

 he has given figures of the heads of fifteen other species. I have 

 referred to these figures, as they elucidate several species described 

 in my Monograph which had not before been figured. Unfortu- 

 nately the figures are not as accurate as they might be ; and one, 

 that of C. cucullatusy is either absolutely erroneous or is from a 

 Chameleon that differs very considerably in the proportion of the 

 head, and in having a dentated crest on the chin, from the species 

 to which M. A. Dumeril has referred it, which was originally de- 

 scribed by me from specimens in the British Museum collection — 

 the account in the * Erpetologie Generale ' having been copied from 

 my description. 



Dr. Andrew Smith, in the fifth number of the * South- African 

 Quarterly Journal,' published at the Cape of Good Hope in October 

 1831, describes two new species, viz. C. namaquensis and C. tcenia- 

 bronchus ; and in the Appendix to his * Zoology of South Africa,' 

 1849, he describes a third, under the name of C. gutturalis» I have 

 not been able to identify the two latter. 



Dr. Fitzinger, in his * Systema Reptilium,' published at Vienna in 

 1843, is the only author, as far as I know, who has attempted to 

 divide the Chameleons into genera. He separates the family into two 

 genera — Chamceleon, with homogeneous, and Bradypodium with he- 

 terogeneous scales. The rest of the lengthened characters which he 

 gives for the genera are only transcripts of one another. He divides 

 the first genus into three sections, viz. CkamcBleon, TriceraSy and 

 Furcifer. The genera and the sections consist of species which have 

 very little affinity, and appear to be very incongruously associated 

 together : for example, Furcifer consists of C. bifurcus, C. Parsoniiy 

 and C. Brookesii ; and Bradypodium of C. pardalisy C. verrucosus, 

 C. pumiluSi and C. cucullatus. The species are not characterized, 

 except by the synonyms appended. It appears that he divides C. 

 vulgaris into four, and C, senegalensis into two species. 



The species have hitherto, except in the instance of Fitzinger 

 above cited, all been referred to a single genus, in which they have 

 been generally arranged in an artificial manner, merely to facilitate 

 the finding of their names. 



The species throw themselves into groups agreeing in natural 

 characters : these groups are quite as distinct as the groups in the 

 other families, which are regarded as genera ; I have therefore so re- 

 garded them. If a comparison of genera of different families is to 

 be established, and their affinities to each other studied, the genera 

 in the diiferent families should be formed on the same plan. 



