118 CLASS REPTILIA. 



We place, in this first section, the following 

 genera : — 



Stellio. Cuv. 



Which have, with the general characters of the 

 family of the iguanas, the tail surrounded by rings 

 composed of large and often spinous scales. 

 Their sub-genera are as follow : — 



CoRDYLUs. Gronov.* 



Have not only the tail, but also the belly and back 

 furnished with large scales, on transverse ranges. 

 Their head, like that of the common lizards, is pro- 

 vided with a continuous osseous buckler, and covered 

 with plates. In many species, the points of the 



According to Bontius, it is originally of Java, where the natives pro- 

 nounce it leguan. If this be the case, the Spanish and Portuguese must 

 have transported it into America, and transformed it into iguana. They 

 apply it to the safe-guard, as well as to the true iguana. This name ha 

 also been sometimes given, as well as that of guano, to some monitors of 

 the Old Continent. Attention should be paid to this in reading the ac- 

 counts of travellers, I am even of opinion, that the leguan of Bontius is 

 nothing else but a monitor. 



* According to Aristotle, " the Cordylus is the only animal which has 

 both feet and gills. It swims with its feet and tail, which resemble that of 

 the Silurus, as far as we may compare small things with great. This tail is 

 soft and broad. It has no fins : it is an animal of the marshes, like the 

 frog. It is a quadruped, and comes out of the water. Sometimes it gets 

 dry, and dies." 



It is evident that these characters can only apply to the larva of the 

 aquatic salamander, as M. Schneider has well observed. Belon has de- 

 scribed this salamander under the name of Cordylus, but his printer added, 

 by mistake, the figure of the safe-guard of the Nile. Rondelet has applied 

 this name to the great Stellio of Egypt, or Caudiverbera of Belon, because. 



