E g . A
ONYCHOCEPHALUS VERTICALIS»- S m it h ,
R e p t il ia .— P l a t e LIY. F i g . A .
0 . Viridi flavus; scuto lostrali postice, dilitato, margine posteriori curvato; scuto preoculari augusto ;
labio superiori scutis quatuor; caudei brevi, apice aculeata.
Longitudo e nasi apice ad basin caudee 6 unc. lin.; candee 2 | lin.
C o l o u r .— The body and tail wine-yellow, tinted with pale, buff-orange ;
head pale sienna-yellow.
F o rm , &c .— Figure moderately slander; body and tail cylindrical; head
slightly depressed; nose rounded; the first third of the body not quite so
thick as the last two-thirds; the thickness of the latter rather less than that
of a common sized goose quill; tail slightly curved, suddenly tapered to a
point, which consists of a short conical spine. The rostral plate is broadest
towards its hinder extremity, and its edge behind is arched; naso-rostral plate broad below, narrower above, where, in this species, a portion of each is
in contact with its fellow of the opposite side, and so separates the anterior frontal from the rostral plate ; preocular plate narrow; ocular plate irregular,
rather large, and several sided, its under edge resting partly on the third labial scale, but principally on the fourth; anterior frontal plate the same
shape as the frontal and the scales of body, but considerably larger; the
supra-ocular and parietal plates narrow, irregular, and in one direction, the
transverse, of considerable length, the prolonged acute point of the ocular
plate is inserted between them. The eye is situated in the angle formed by the
union of the hinder edge of the supra-ocular and pre-ocular plates. The plates
of the upper lip, four, the two anteriormost separated from each other by the
intervention of a narrow, square portion of the rostral plate; these and the
one next to them on each side are small; the third is rather larger, and the
fourth much the largest. Scales of the body rather small, and six-sided,