APPENDIX C. — REPTILES. 343 



figures, all of which are drawn of natural size. The tail is of the 

 length of the body, the head excluded. The latter is oval, broader 

 than high ; its summit being convex, and its snout truncated. It is 

 covered with small, irregular, and polygonal plates, larger on the 

 middle line of the skull than above the eye, the nose, and the nape. 

 There is a supraorbital carina, with small elongated plates, 

 scarcely to be seen with the naked eye. The infraorbital plates 

 are less numerous, but longer. The eyes occupy the middle of the 

 length of the head. The eyelids are bordered by a row of minute 

 and pointed plates, forming a serrated edge. The nostrils are 

 nearer the end of the snout than the eye. The angle of the mouth 

 extends to the posterior rim of the orbit. The upper jaw is bor- 

 dered with a row of small, very elongated plates, obliquely imbri- 

 cated. Margining the lower jaw there are two rows of small an- 

 gular plates, the larger ones being at the angle of the mouth. 

 There is a single row of small conical teeth on both jaws ; those 

 in front are acute and slightly recurved ; those behind stouter and 

 erect, with a carina separating the rounded crown from the body 

 of the tooth. The posterior extremity of the tongue has a semi- 

 lunar notch. As observed in the generic paragraph, there are no 

 external auditory apertures ; the tympanum is covered by scales 

 altogether similar to those of the neck. On both sides of the 

 neck and immediately behind the angle of the mouth, is a fold of 

 the skin, which vanishes in a depression under the head. Farther 

 backward, and on the breast, is situated another fold, constituting 

 an elegant neck ring, which, however, does not extend higher than 

 the shoulders. 



The anterior legs are shorter and more slender than the poste- 

 rior. There are five toes, similar in each pair of limbs, elongated, 

 slender, terminated by a compressed and recurved nail. The toes 

 and nails of the posterior limb, however, are a little longer in pro- 

 portion to the limbs themselves. The fourth toe is the longest, 

 the two external ones the shortest, the second and third nearly 

 equal. There are eleven femoral pores on each thigh. 



The scales are slighty imbricated, subcarinated on the back and 

 sides, smooth underneath. They are smaller on the neck and at 

 the base of the limbs than on the sides and back. Those on the 

 tail are indistinctly verticillated. The smallest ones are found 

 under the head, in the region of the groins and behind the vent ; 

 they are larger on the abdomen than under the tail. The toes 

 are entirely covered with scales. 



