ORDER SAURIA. 109 



cient continent, though Seba, and Daudin, who fol- 

 lows him, gives some true monitors as Americans ; 

 but this is a mistake. 



There are two species, inhabitants of Egypt, 

 which may be considered as the types of this sub- 

 division. 



The Monitor of the Nile. Ouaran of the Arabs. 

 Lacerta Nilotica. L. Mus. Worm. 313. Geoff. 

 St. Hil. Gr. Ouv. sur I'Egypte. Reptiles, pi. 1. 

 f. 1. 



With strong and conical teeth, the hinder of which 

 become round with age ; brown, with paler and 

 deeper points, forming divers compartments, among 

 which are remarked transverse ranges of large ocel- 

 lated spots, which on the tail become rings. The 

 tail, round at the base, is surmounted by a keel on 

 almost its entire length. This reptile attains the 

 length of five or six feet. In Egypt, the vulgar 

 pretend that it is a young crocodile, excluded in a 

 dry soil. The ancient Egyptians had it engraven 

 on their ornaments, perhaps, because it devours the 

 crocodile's eggs.* 



* To this species are approximated by the form of the teeth, and even 

 the arrangement of spots — which, by the way, are very similar in all the 

 monitors — M. Ornalus, Daud. An. Mus. II. xlviii. ; — i«c Co/jera^w, Spar- 

 mann ; — M. Albogularis, Daud. Rept. III. pi. xxxii. 



It is of this subdivision that M. Fitzinger makes his genus Vauanus. 

 Under this name Merrcm comprehended all my monitors properly so 

 called. 



