MONITORS. 



151 



representative of the second group of the genus, in which, while the nostrils are in 

 the form of oblique slits, the tail is compressed and keeled. Belonging to a sub- 

 group characterised by the smooth scales of the abdomen, it is further distinguished 

 by the absence of large (supraocular) scales above the eyes, by the nostril being 

 three times as far from the snout as from the eye, and by the small size of the 

 scales. It is slightly inferior in size to the last, and has the upper-parts greyish 

 brown, banded and spotted with yellow, and the under-parts yellowish. It 





CAPE MONITOR {\ licit, size). 



generally frequents cliffs, or low rocky hills, in the interstices of which it delights 

 to hide, coming out to bask on the flat surfaces. Gray's monitor (V. grayi) is an 

 example of a second subgroup in which the abdominal scales are keeled. In the 

 third great group, of which we take as our first example the water-monitor (V. 

 salvator), represented in the coloured Plate, round or oval nostrils are accompanied 

 by a compressed tail. In the species in question there is a series of transversely 

 elongated scales above the eyes, the oval nostril is situated as far from the eye as 

 from the tip of the snout, there are more than eighty transverse rows of scales be- 



