18 REPTILES. 



and large rectangular scales on the belly and round the tail. The skin 

 of the throat, covered with small scales, is doubled into two transverse 

 folds. There is a row of pores on the under part of their thighs*. This 

 group is also susceptible of subdivisions : the first forms 



CROCODILURUsf, Spix, 



Which have, for their distinguishing character, scales relieved by ridges, 

 as in the Crocodiles, forming crests on the tail, which is compressed. 



Mon. erocodilinus, Merr. ; La Grande Dragonne, Lacep. Quadr. 

 Ovip. pi. ix, (The Great Dragon), has ridged scales scattered also 

 along the back. Its back teeth become rounded with age. It attains 

 a length of six feet, and lives in Guiana, in burrows near marshes : 

 its flesh is eaten. 



Lac. bicarinata, L. ; Le Lezardet, Daud. ; Crocodilurus ama- 

 zonicus, Spix, pi. xxi, is smaller, and has none of the aforesaid kind 

 of scales on the back. It is found in several parts of South America. 

 The second, the 



Safeguards- — Sauvegardes, Cuv., 



Have all the scales of the back and tail carinate: the teeth are notched, 



but with age the back ones also become rounded J. 



Some of them, more particularly termed Safeguards, have a tail that 



is more or less compressed; the scales on the belly are longer than they 



are broad. They live on the banks of rivers, &c. Such in particular is 

 Lac. teguixin, Lin. and Shaw, (the Great Safeguard of America) ; 

 the Teyu-guazu; Temapara, &c. ; Seb. I, xcvi, 1, 2, 3, xcvii, 5, 

 xcix, 1, has yellow dots and spots disposed in transverse bands, on 

 a black ground above, and a yellowish one beneath; yellow and 

 black bands on the tail §. In Brazil and Guiana it attains the 

 length of six feet. It moves rapidly on shore, and when pursued 

 hastens to the water for refuge, where it dives, but does not swim. 

 It feeds on all sorts of insects, reptiles, eggs, &c, and lays in holes 

 which it excavates in the sand. Both flesh and eggs are edible ||. 



Others, called Ameivas^[, only differ from the preceding in the tail, 



* Merremhas made his genus Teius from this second group. 



t M. Gray has changed this name into Ada. 



X It is to such that M. Fitzinger particularly applies the name of Monitor. 



§ Dried specimens, or those preserved in spirits, assume a greenish or bluish tint 

 in those parts where the colours are light, and it is thus that they are represented by 

 Seba; but while alive, and as we have seen it, the light parts are more or less yellow. 

 Pr. Max. de Wied has given a good picture of it in his eleventh No. 



|| Add the Tupin. A laches vertcs of Daud., if it be not a simple variety of Sauve- 

 gnrde. Spix calls it Tup. monitor, pi. xix; it is his. T. nigropunctatus, which is the 

 true Sauvegarde. 



^[ According to Marcgrave, the term Ameiva designates a Lizard with a forked tail, 

 a circumstance which can only be the result of accident; Edwards having had in his 

 possession an individual of the above division, in which this accident was observed, 

 applied that term to the whole species. Marcgrave compares his individual to his 

 1'araguira, which, from his description, is rather a Polt/chrus. 



