10 MR. F, E, BEDDARD ON THE [May 3, 



forwards beyond the funnel of the oviduct along the membrane 

 which supports the oviduct, and which ends anteriorly in a trans- 

 verse ligament tying the anterior border of each liver-lobe to the 

 parietes *. The vein on each side passes along this ligament and 

 enters the liver-lobe, forming thus a part of the hepatic portal 

 system. I have not seen a desciiption of a similar state of affairs 

 in any other lizard, and I have not myself observed anything of 

 the kind. These vessels may take the place of the dorsal parieto- 

 hepatic trunk or trunks, which, as Hochstetter correctly notes, 

 are apparently absent in Chamceleon. Physiologically they would 

 appear to be equivalent, since they convey blood from the dorsal 

 parietes. 



Epigastric Veins. — These veins were properly injected only in 

 one out of the four specimens which I have been able to examine. 

 The principal vein of the series, as in Tiliqua, is the median 

 epigastric. But the two lateral epigastrics are not absent, though 

 of diminished importance as compared with their condition in 

 Iguana and in Varanus. They arise from the anterior abdominal 

 of each side behind the fat-body, and run along the body-wall 

 dorsally of the fat-body on each side. They are small vessels, 

 and seem to end in branches of the much more important median 

 epigastric. The latter vessel arises from the anterior abdominal 

 just at the anterior end of the fat-body, to which it gives off a 

 branch ; whether there is a branch to the other (the left) fat- 

 body, I do not know. The epigastric passes forwards near to the 

 middle line and to the right of the anterior abdominal as far as 

 the point where the anterior abdominal receives the portal vein. 

 At this point it opens into the anterior abdominal ; the main 

 trunk, however, diminished in calibre, still continues its forward 

 course, and seems to be connected with the ventral parietal 

 aifluents of the liver, though I am unable to make an accurate 

 statement as to the mode of its connection. It gives off in its 

 course a good many branches, which seem to anastomose with 

 similar branches of the anterior abdominal. 

 • The anterior ahdoviinal vein of each side is, like that of 

 Varanus (as made known by Hochstetter t), a dii-ect continuation 

 of the vein from the hind leg of its own side. Each receives a 

 branch fi'om the kidney and dorsal parietes, which has been 

 already referred to. A peculiarity of the Chamseleon, as com- 

 pared with at least some Lacertilia J, is that the two anterior 

 abdominal roots unite to form the single median unpaired trunk 

 before they reach, and receive all the six branches from, the 

 paired fat-bodies. The anterior abdominal vein pursues a median 

 course between the two closely approximated fat-bodies ; and 

 here seveiul more or less regularly arranged branches from 

 each fat-body reach the unpaired region of the anterior abdominal. 



* " On some Points in tLe Anatomy of Tiipinamhis teguexin," P. Z. S. 1904, 

 vol. i. p. 465. 



t Loc. cit. p. 467. 



J Beddard, '•' On the Venous System in certain Lizards," P. Z. S. 1904, vol. i. p. 438. 



