^14 



MONITORY LIZARD. 



Lacerta Monitor. L. cauda ancipiti, corpore mutico nigro, ma" 



cults albis ocellatis. 

 Black Lizard, with very long compressed carinated tail, and 



body marked b}'^ transverse rows of white ocellated spots. 

 Lacerta Monitor. Lin, Syst. Nat. p. 360. 

 Lacerta Amboinensis elegantissima. Seb. 1. p. 147. t- 93. 

 /. 1, 2, 3. 



Lacerta major 2?/cMe/2joa//m in Nova Hispania dicta. Seb. I, 

 p.l52.t.g7.f.2. L.Tupinambis. 2. t. 86. L. Tejuguacu. 2. 

 f. 105. L. Mexicana. 2. f. 30. L. Ceilonica. 2. t. 49. 



Le Tupinambis. Cepede ovip. p. 251* pL 17. 



The Monitor, or Monitory Lizard, is one of the 

 most beautiful of the whole tribe, and is also one 

 of the largest; sometimes measuring not less than 

 four or five feet from the nose to the tip of the tail. 

 Its shape is slender and elegant, the head being 

 small, the snout gradually tapering, the limbs mo- 

 derately slender, the tail laterally compressed, and 

 insensibly decreasing towards the tip, which is 

 very slender and sharp. Though the colours of 

 this Lizard are simple, yet such is their disposi- 

 tion, that it is impossible to survey their general 

 effect without admiration. In this respect, how- 

 ever, the animal varies, perhaps, more than most 

 others of its tribe. It is commonly black, with 

 the abdomen white, the latter colour extending 

 to some distance up the sides, in the form of several 

 pointed bands, besides which the whole body is 

 generally ornamented by several transverse bands 

 consisting of white annular spots, while the head 



