236 
Transactions of the Royal Society of Sonth Africa. 
at the disposal of the senior author, the specimens in various South African 
museums have been critically alluded to by the junior author, who is alone 
responsible for their identification. 
1. Agama hispida, L. 
A. Forma typica. 
Lacerta hisinda, Linn. Mus. Ad. Fred. p. 44 (1754), and Syst. Nat. 
(ed. 10) i, p. 205 (1755). 
Agama spinosa (non Gray), Dum. &. Bibr. Erp. Gri'n. iv, p. 502 (1837). 
Agama hispida, Bouleng. Cat. Liz. i, p. 349 (1885). 
The type of this species is not in existence.* There can, however, be no 
doubt as to the correct application of the name hisjnda, which was based by 
Linnaeus on figures in Seba's Thesaurus, vol. i : 
P. 134, pi. 83, figs. 1, 2. Lacertus, orbicularis, sjiinosus, sive Tapayaxin, 
ex Nova Hisjmnia. Hernandez, ix. 
P. 173, pi. 109, fig. 6. Bnfo americanus, sjyinosvs, Tapayaxin. 
Now, these quotations from Hernandez refer to a totally different lizard 
from Mexico, which bears the name Phrynosoma orhiculare, L. The figures 
given by Seba represent a stout Agama, no doubt from the Cape, like the 
other South African reptiles known in those early days, and the ventral 
aspect, in pi. 83, fig. 2, shows a dark, wide-meshed network on the body. 
Lacerta hispida is therefore the Agama which occurs in the neighbourhood 
of Cape Town. The following description is taken from specimens, preserved 
in the British Museum, which may be regarded as typical of that species. 
Form. — Habit very stout, body much depressed. Head short, convex, sub- 
cordif orm, its width equal to or greater than its length to occiput ; snout very 
short, rounded ; canthus rostralis very short ; nostril directed outwards, in a 
convex but not tubular shield, which, exceptionally, may be nearly flat, 
pierced below the canthus rostralis ; length of head 4 (male) to 4^ (female) 
times in length to vent. Diameter of ear-opening much less (^ to f ) than 
cleft of closed eye. Limbs moderately elongate ; the hind limb, pressed 
against the body, reaches the shoulder or the neck ; length of hand equal to 
depth of head ; fingers short, third longest ; tibia or crus as long as or a 
little shorter than the head or the foot ; toes short, third longer than fourth, 
fifth not extending as far as the first, than which it is not or but slightly 
longer. Tail cylindrical, rather slender, a little longer or a little shorter 
than head and body (f to 1^ times in males, f to ly^j times in females). 
Measurements (in millimetres) : 
* Cf. ATirlersson, Bill. Sv. Yet.-Ak, HanclL, xxvi, iv, 1, 1900, p. 11. 
