1895.] BATKACHIANS FEOM .UJEJf. 643 



placed at iny disposal, for the purpose of collecting, by the Sultan 

 of Lahej, but this solitary specimen was the beginning and ending 

 of his services. It was obtained in the neighbourhood of the 

 babool trees mentioned in connection with Prisiurus jiavipxinctatus. 

 The second was received from a camel-driver Avho said he had killed 

 it, at the door of his house, in Al Hautah, Lahej ; and the third was 

 seen among some thick bushes at Haithalhim." 



In this species, but more so in Varamis niloticus, two slight 

 eminences are occasionally present, in both sexes, immediately 

 before the cloacal opening, occupying the position of the praeanal 

 pores of other lizards. The true nature of these structures in 

 V. griseus is best seen by studying Varanus niloticus. 



The pores of the body-scales of that species are very minute 

 openings requii'ing the aid of a hand-lens to render them visible, 

 but in front of the cloacal opening they decidedly increase in size, and 

 one or more of them, always in the same spot, frequently becomes 

 enlarged and functionally active in a way perfectly distinct from 

 any of its fellows, as from it alone exudes a yellowish-red secretion. 

 In front of the anus a distinct swollen eminence occurs on either 

 side of the mesial line and in the centre of this swelling is placed 

 the enlarged pore. When the red crust of the dry secretion is 

 removed a distinct pit remains, and in one specimen there was clear 

 evidence of this pit being made up from secondary cup-shaped 

 depressions, their central walls of opposition having been absorbed, 

 so that the pit had a quadrilobate appearance. The presence of a 

 pair of eminences in this region suggests the probability that thej' 

 are glandular in nature, and that, during their functional activity, 

 one or more scale-pores become enlarged and perform the function 

 of excretory orifices. 



I direct attention to these structures in the Varanidce, as they 

 suggest that undue importance should not be attached to the 

 absence or presence of praeanal pores in certain Lacertilian genera. 

 As a further illustration of this I may mention that in the genus 

 Stenodactylus two prseanal pores, like those of CercDiujdactylus, ai'e 

 absent or present, irrespective of sex, in the species generally 

 known as S. guttatus, Cuv., but, as every herpetologist is aware, 

 this genus has hitherto been regarded as devoid of these struc- 

 tures. 



8. Latastia jfEUMANNi (Matschie). (Plate XXXVIl. fig. 1.) 



Philochortus neumanni, Matscbie, SB. Ges. naturf. Fr. Berlin, 

 1893, p. 30. 



1 $ . Lahej. 

 1 (J. Lahej. 



These two specimens so perfectly agree with Herr Matschie's 

 description of the species, that there can be no question of their 

 correct identification. The only example obtained by Herr Oscar 

 Neumann measured 72 millim. from the snout to the vent ; whereas 



41* 



