SAURIANS. 25 



on the body as well as the limbs and tail, which is very long; those on 

 the middle of the back are more or less turned up, and compressed into 

 spines, forming a crest of variable extent. They have no dewlaps or 

 visible pores on the thighs, which, added to their teeth, distinguish 

 them from the Iguana?. 



The most common species, Lac. calotes, L. ; Seb. I, lxxxix, 2 ; 

 xciii, 2; xcv, 3 and 4; Daud. Ill, xliii; Agama ophiomachus, 

 Merr., is of a pretty light blue, with transverse white streaks on the 

 sides; there are two rows of spines behind the ear. From the East 

 Indies. It is called a Chameleon in the Moluccas, although it does 

 not change its colours. Its eggs are fusiform*. The 



Lophyrtjs, Dumeril, 



Have the scales of the body similar to those of the Agama?; there is 

 also a crest of palisado-like scales still higher than that of the Calotes. 

 The tail is compressed, and the femoral pores are wanting. A remark- 

 able species is, 



Agama gigantea\, Kuhl. ; Seb. I, c. 2, whose dorsal crest is 

 placed, very high on the neek, and is formed of several rows of ver- 

 tical scales; two bony ridges, one on each side, extend from the 

 muzzle to the eye, where they terminate in a point, and join on the 

 temple. This singular Saurian appears to belong to India. The 



GoNOCEPHALUS, Kdlip., 



Are closely allied to Lophyrus; their cranium also forms a sort of disk, 

 by means of a ridge, which terminates in a notch above each eye. There 

 is a dewlap and a crest on the neck. The tympanum is visible J. 



Colotes, and Askalabotes. It was, as we have seen, the Geckot/e of Lacep. Its ap- 

 plication, by Linnaeus, to Lac. calotes, is arbitrary, and was suggested to him by 

 Seba. Spix comprises our Calotes in his genus Lophyrus, which is not the same as 

 that of Dumeril. 



* Add, the Ag. gutfurosa, Merr., or cristatella, Kuhl.; blue, without bands, and 

 small scales on the back; Seb. I, lxxxix, 1; — the Ag. cristata, Merr., Seb. I, xiiii, 1, 

 and II, lxxvi, 5, a reddish brown, with .blackish brown scattered spots, of which tbe 

 Agame arlequine, Daud. Ill, xliv, is the young; — the Ag. vultuosa, Harl. Phil. Ac. 

 Nat. Sc. IV, xix (a). All these species are from the East Indies; the Lophyrws 

 ochrocollaris and margarilaceus, Spix, XII, 2, are American Calotes; the first is thte 

 same as the Agama picta, Pr. Max.; the Loph. panther a, Spix, pi. xxiii, f. 1, is the 

 young of the same. Add to these American Calotes, Loph. rhombifer, Spix, xi, of 

 which the Loph. abomaxillaHs, Id. XXIII, f. 2, is the young; — Loph. auronitens, 

 Spix, pi. xiii. We might separate from the other Calotes a species from Cochin 

 China, with a smooth back, without any visible scales; the belly, limbs, and tail co- 

 vered with carinated scales (Cal. lepidogaster, Nob.); the Ag. catenata, Pr. Max. liv. 

 V, may belong to this group. 



N.B. The designer of Seba's plates has given to most of his Iguana, Agama 1 , 

 Calotes, &c, extensible and forked tongues, drawn from imagination. 



\ It is difficult to imagine the reason that induced Kuhl to call this Saurian 

 gigantic, as it is not larger than its most closely allied Aganue and Calotes. 



J Isis, 1825, I, p. 590, pi. iii. 



ggf" (a) Major Le Comte seems to have ascertained that the Ag. vultuosa is the 

 young of another species. — Eng. Ed. 



