PHYLLODACTYLUS PORPHYREUS, Weigm. Bum. et Bib. Erpet. General, tom, 3, p. 393.
This species occurs throughout the whole of Southern Africa, and is found in decayed wood, in
crevices of rocks, and under loose stones.
PHYLLODACTYLUS LINEATUS, Gray. Cat. Lizards, British Museum, page 150. 1845.
Colour, above, rusty pearl-grey, the upper surface of the head and temples variegated with fine
waved liver-brown lines; the back and sides with four or six liver-brown stripes, two on the back and one
or two on each side. In many individuals these stripes are connected by transverse liver-brown lines,
in others the longitudinal stripes are wanting, the back and sides variegated only with liver-brown bars.
Tail, above, with longitudinal lines or liver-brown bars, each bar angular, the angle directed backwards.
Under parts wine-yellow, slightly variegated with livid black points. A dark liver-brown line along
rostral canthus, from the eye to the nose. Scales of back flat, nearly circular, and slightly imbricate;
hinder edge of rostral plate emarginate. Head rather short and deep. Length from nose to tail,
1 inch; of tail, 1 inch 4 lines. The scales in this species are larger in proportion than in Phyllodac-
tylus Porphyreus, and more distinctly imbricate, the rostral plate behind is emarginate instead of
entire; and the head is shorter and deeper. Occurs in crevices of rocks, and under the bark of decayed
trees in different parts of the Cape Colony.
STENODACTYLUS GARRULUS, n. s.
The upper and lateral parts of the head, the back, the sides, and the tail, pale buff-orange;
the back near the neck variegated with waved, narrow, brownish red, transverse lines, the remainder
of the back mottled with small, irregular, brownish red spots; the sides of the body with dull
brownish red streaks. Tail irregularly spotted brownish red, or partially barred with that colour.
Throat lemon-yellow; belly and under surface of tail yellowish white. Eyes silvery, with a coppery
gloss. Head large, subovate, short and deep, considerably wider than the neck; sides of body rather
protuberant; tail cyb’ndrical, tapered, and pointed, behind anus bulged. Scales of head and body
small, nearly circular, those of the latter arranged in transverse rows; scales of the upper surface of tail
rather larger, somewhat pointed behind, and slightly imbricate. Toes, particularly those of hinder feet,
long, the fringe on the outer side longest; claws long, slender, and nearly straight. Skin on the
sides of the neck loose, forming slight folds, on the throat superabundant, and dilatable at the will of
the animal. External ear-opening narrow and oblique, situated lower than the angle of the mouth, and
about three lines behind it. Nostrils in the centre of three narrow raised plates, at the apex of the nose,
and only separated from each other by the rostral plate. Length from nose to base of tail, 1 inch 9 lines;
of tail, 1 inch 6 lines. Inhabits sandy districts in the interior of Southern Africa, is gregarious, and lives
in small, nearly perpendicular burrows; it seeks its food probably during the night, at least I have never
seen more than its head above ground during the day. In the localities in which it occurs many
individuals may be seen peeping from their hiding-places any time during the day, each uttering a
sharp sound, somewhat like chick, chick ; and the number thus occupied is at times so great, and the
noise so disagreeable as to cause the traveller to change his quarters.
YARANUS NILOTICUS, Fitz. Bum. et -Bib. Erpet. Gener. tom. iii, page 476. Gray, Oat.
Lizards, British Museum, page 11. Lacerto Capensis, Spa/rman, voyage to the Cape. Monitor
Niloticus, Isid. Geoff, work on Egypt, tom. i. page 121, tab. 3, fig. 1. Leguan of the Cape
Colonists.
Occurs throughout the whole of Southern Africa. It is generally discovered on the banks of
rivers or margins of lakes, and plunges into the water the instant it is disturbed, and if the latter be
deep it is rarely seen again after it reaches it.
TROPIDOSAURA CAPENSIS, Bum. et Bib. Erpet. Gener. tom, v. page 171, Algira Capensis,
Smith, Mag. Nat. Hist., new series, vol. ii, p. 94. Gray, Cat. of Lizards, British- Museum, p. 36,
Inhabits sandy flats to the northward and eastward of Latakoo, and occurs abundantly in the
Kalahari desert,
TROPIDOSAURA DUMERELII, n. s.
Head subovate, narrow towards the nose; body rather slender; back convex; sides slightly
protuberant; tail slightly depressed at the base, elsewhere cylindrical, tapered, and pointed. Nasal
plate somewhat kidney shaped; the nostril in the notch behind, its posterior margin formed by a small
rhomboidal plate; naso-rostral plate six-sided, lateral sides short, its surface smooth; all the other
plates of the upper surface of the head finely ribbed. Prontal plate club-shaped; scales of the temples
strongly keeled; scales of the body and sides subovate, or subrhomboidal and strongly keeled; the
keel prolonged into a fine pointed spine; scales of the tail long, fqur-sided, rather narrow behind, and
keeled; of the belly quadrangular, or somewhat six-sided; the lateral sides oblique, and arranged in six
longitudinal rows. The outermost toe of fore foot rather short, the second and third equal and considerably
longer ; the outer or posterior of hinder foot short, and much behind the base of the second toe,
the second very long, and the third considerably shorter, and the innermost very short. Femoral
pores 12. Lower eyelid coated with small semi-pellucid plates. External ear-opening vertically ovate,
the anterior edge nearly even, and with a long narrow plate at and towards the upper end. The ground
eolour of the upper surface of the head, the back, the sides, the upper surface of the tail, and the outer
surfaces of the extremities, rusty buff-orange, the body and base of the tail variegated with four longitudinal
reddish brown, and two rusty white lines, the latter one on each side between the brown lines,
and the second below the lowermost. Under surface of body and tail, and the inner surface of extremi-
. ties, straw-yellow, or sienna-yellow. Length from nose to base of tail, 2 inches, leng'th of tail, 4 inches.
Inhabits sandy deserts to the north-east of Latakoo, towards the tropic of Capricorn.
TROPIDOSAURA BURCHELLII, n. s.
Figure rather slender; head narrow and tapered anteriorly; nose slightly rounded. Body
slightly depressed; sides protuberant; back convex. Tail at the base four-sided, towards the point
cylindrical. Extremities slender and moderately long; toes long and slender, the next to the outermost
on the hinder foot much the longest. Nostril in the hinder edge of the nasal plate and behind
formed by the anterior margin of the naso-frenal plate. External ear-opening vertically ovate, a large
scale anteriorly at the upper edge. Rostral plate truncated posteriorly; fronto-nasal plate contiguous,
somewhat five-sided, hinder side shortest; frontal plate six-sided, slightly angular before and behind,
lateral sides long, and slightly concave; interparietal plate long, narrow, and subrhomboidal; occipital
plate small and nearly circular; parietal plates subovate ; palpebral plates three, the first much
the largest, the last very small. Temporal plates partly large, partly small, all smooth. Scales of
back and sides rhomboidal, strongly carinated, the keel prolonged into a fine acute spine; scales of
tail more or less ovate and strongly keeled; plates of abdomen six-sided, and disposed in eight or nine
longitudinal rows, those of the middle row long, transversely; preanal plates two, one in front of the