224 ZOOLOGY. 



subcircular scales. Dorsal scales sutangular and moderate in size. Abdominal scutellfe 



quadrangularly elongated, disjjosed upon transverse series, and smooth. Tail longer than the 



body and head together. Above olivaceous, with four rows of black spots margined with 

 white. Beneath yellowish white^ spotted with black. 



Stn. Aporomera ornata, DuM. & B. Erp. gen. V, 1839, 76. 



GuicH. in Gat, Hist, de Chile, Zool. II, 1848, 58, Plate iii, fig. 1. 

 Ameiva oculata, D'Orb. Voy. Amer. merid. Kept. Plate v, figs. 6 — 9. 



Obs. Finding that the iconography of this species might be considerably improved, under the 

 circumstances, we have thought that such an opportunity ought not be allowed to pass without 

 avail. The figures detailing its external structures are such as will throw a considerable light 

 ujjon what is already known of that animal by those given in Gay's Historia de Chile, which, 

 vAen compared to ours, cannot but attract the attention of herpetologists, as exhibiting some 

 dissimilarities in the plates which protect the head. 



Descr. The latter is subquadrangular or rather subconical, flattened upon its upper surface, 

 and more or less swollen upon the temporal regions. The vertical plate is irregularly six- 

 sided and broadest anteriorly. The occipitals are very numerous, most of them small and 

 polygonal, irregularly disj^osed, save eight of them, occupying the middle of said region imme- 

 diately behind the vertical. The foremost is very small and odd, situated in a notch of the 

 posterior margin of the vertical. On its sides but a little behind, and obliquely disposed, are 

 two larger plates as one pair. Immediately behind these first three, the largest of the occipitals 

 may be observed, elongated, irregular, varying in shape, almost as large as the vertical, and 

 having on either side a smaller j^late as a second pair, exteriorly and behind which is a third 

 pair still smaller. On some specimens two or three other pairs are observed, scarce larger than 

 those covering the rest of the occipital region, and constituting two parallel series posteriorly to 

 the third pair above mentioned. On the frontal region the plates are small and numerous, 

 varying in absolute number as well as in form, and disposed without any marked regularity, 

 save a somewhat concentric arrangement amongst the external ones ; but this may not be con- 

 stant in all the specimens. The rostral is broad and low, six-sided, the three upj^er sides 

 concave or subconcave, the uppermost sometimes so small as to give to that plate a conico-pen- 

 tagonal shape. There are three or four — one or two anterior, and two posterior — nasals. 

 Between the nasals and the rostral is situated a conspicuous phrenic plate, exhibiting a large 

 portion of its surface in an upi^er view of the head. The posterior jirenasal (or prenasals) forms 

 an oblique arch from the first upjjer labial to the upper portion of the nostril. The postnasals 

 are the smallest, subquadrangular in shape, placed one above the other so as to limit equally 

 the posterior edge of the nostrils, which is large and approximates the labials. The loral 

 region is occupied by three rather large plates, much higher than broad, and increasing in 

 size from forwards backwards. The inferior orbitals, nine or ten in number, form a continuous 

 chain from the postero-inferior part of the eye to the surciliaries, increasing in size from back- 

 wards forwards, and provided with a carina from about beneath the pupil anteriorly. Thirteen 

 or fourteen surciliaries constitute the upper edge of the orbit ; these plates are small, subequal in 

 size, a little larger anteriorly than posteriorly, and transversely elongated upon the middle ot 

 the chain. The upper and lower lids are densely covered with a pavement of irregular and 

 small plates, disposed in series next to the inferior orbitals, where they are somewhat larger as 

 well as anteriorly. Upon the edge of the lids they are likewise disposed in series, but not 

 otherwise different from those on the middle region of these organs. Upon the upper lid they 

 assume a granular aspect owing to their much reduced size. There are from five to seven 

 suroculary plates transversely elongated, the middle one being the largest, and surrounded 

 with small plates constituting one single series upon the region adjoining the vertex, and a 

 double series exteriorly where these plates are the smallest of the group. The upper labials, 



