REPTILES. 
51 
little outwards. Eyes rather large, the upper eyelids forming perfect flaps, which entirely 
cover the eyes. Body rounded, very broad. The shoulders and thighs wholly concealed by 
the skin of the body. Limbs very short. The anterior feet very broad. The toes somewhat 
depressed, very short, bordered with a fold of skin. Hinder feet with the toes more depressed 
and more distinctly bordered. Back covered with small glands. 
CdLOUR. — The colour of the upper surface is dark olive, becoming lighter at the sides, and having 
numerous dark brown spots, which are round, oval, elliptical, or irregular, of very various sizes, 
placed somewhat symmetrically, and each bordered with a whitish or yellow^ line. Beneath 
pale, excepting the throat, which is black. 
I have ventured to consider this remarkable amphibian as specifically distinct 
from U. marmoratum of Bibron ; a conclusion to which I have been almost impera- 
tively led, by the fact of its inhabiting a different hemisphere from all known spe- 
cimens of that species. The other was found by M. Leschenault in the interior of 
the peninsula of India : the specimen from which the present description is taken 
was obtained by Mr. Darwin at Buenos Ayres. Notwithstanding the similarity of 
the two species, which is so great as to have led Mons. Bibron to consider them as 
identical, I could not assent to such an anomaly as the existence of an animal, at 
once so rare and possessed of such limited powers of locomotion, in two regions 
so widely remote. I have not the opportunity of comparing the specimens of 
the former species with the present, but, even from Mons. Bibron’s description, I 
believe that I can discover sufficient discrepancies between the animals, to bear 
me out in the view I have taken. These discrepancies I venture to place in the 
following tabular view, and leave zoologists to form their own conclusions. 
UPERODON MARMORATUM. 
“ La tete offi’e en arriere une largeur a peu 
pres egale a son longueur totale, laquelle entre 
pour le quart environ dans I’etendue de I’ani- 
mal.” 
“ On pourrait considerer la peau comme 
etant parfaitement lisse, si I’on ne voyait eparses 
sur le dessus du tronc un certain nombre de 
verrues glanduleuses d’un assez grand diametre 
relativement a la grosseur de I’animal, mais fort 
peu saillantes ou a peine convexes.” 
“ Les parties superieures de ce Batracien 
presentent sur un fond olivatre, d’enormes 
taches brunes, toutes conjluentes, ou s' anastomosant 
diversement."* 
UPERODON ORNATUM. 
Head fully half as broad again as it is long, 
and equal in breadth to half the total length of 
the animal. 
Back covered with numerous small glandular 
tubercles, notably elevated. 
All the spots on the back are quite distinct, 
not in any w'ay passing into each other or con- 
nected, and each encircled by a white line. 
* Bibr. Rept. VIII. p. '749. 
