This is a common species in the neighbourhood of Mandalay. I t appears to
be an essentially Malayan form, spreading from Siam westwards to the Garo Hills
and occurring also in the Nicobars. Its existence in Ceylon is doubtful : but Kelaart
forwarded what he believed to be a specimen to thè Indian Museum, Calcutta. I
have, however, not been able to identify it. Ferguson includes this species in his
recent work, “ The Reptile Fauna of Ceylon,” but mentions that he has never
been able to procure a specimen.
C a l o t e s m a r i a , Gray.
Calotes maria, Gray, Cat. Lizards, B. M., 1845, p. 248 ; Giinther, Kept. Brit. Ind., 1864, p. 144 ;
• 'id., Proc. Zool. Soe., 1870,p. 778, pi. xlv, fig. B .; Jerdon, Proc. As. Soc., Bengal, 1870, p. 77;
Theobald, Descr., Cat. Kept. Brit. Ind., 1876, p. 108.
Calotes platyeeps, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc., Bengal, vol. xxi, 1852, p. 854 ; id., op. cit.,. vol. xxii, 1858,
p. 650 ; Blyth, Kelaart, Prod. Faunæ Zeylan., 1852, app. p. 48 ; Giinther, Kept. Brit. Ind.?
1843, p. 148, nota.
These specimens «conform to the types of the species with which they have
been compared.
The occurrence of this lizard, in the district of Teng-yue-chow (Momien) which
is remarkably deficient in trees, would seem to indicate that the species is not so
arboreal as its allies C. versicolor and C. emma.
C a l o t e s e m m a , Gray.
Calotes emma, Gray, Cat. Liz., 1845, p. 244; Blyth, Journ. As. Soc., Bengal, vol. xxii, 1853, p. 413,
App. p. 647; Giinth., Kept. B. Ind., 1864, p. 144; Theobald, Journ. As. Soc., Bengal, 1868,
vol. xxxvii, extra No., p. 36 ; Journ. Linn. Soc., vol. x, 1868, p. 33 ; Descr., Cat. Kept. Brit.
Ind., 1876, p. 108; Jerdon, Proc. As. Soc., Bengal, 1870, p. 77.
In the specimens of this species, which were obtained by me, the spines on the
head are not so strongly developed as in the type, but all the other characters are
well marked.
Length of body 4J75, length of tail 10’25.
This species has been recorded from the Khasia Hills, Assam, Pegu, Mergui, and
Tenasserim, and the subjects of this notice were caught at an elevation of 3,000 feet,
on the Kakhyen Hills.
O r io c a l o t e s , Giinther.
O r io c a l o t e s k a k h i e n e n s i s , n. s. Plate LXXVI, fig. 1.
This essentially arboreal lizard was captured at P’onsee.
The head is covered with obtusely keeled scales of different sizes, a few large
scales occurring near the front of the snout, and on the superciliary ridges and
occiput. No spines on the head as in O. mi/nor. An obscure rounded ridge runs
from the eye to the tympanum. The canthus rostralis and superciliary ridge are
not well defined. Scales of the body of moderate size, imbricate, keeled; those on
the side of the back directed upwards and backwards, and those below downwards
and backwards. A few large keeled scales scattered over the sides. A fold of
almost granular scales over the shoulder. Scales of the neck keeled. About seven
longitudinal rows of large smooth scales at the angle of the lower jaw, rrimfrrishing
in number as they approach the chin. Scales on the tail nearly as broad as long.
Base of tail compressed, but thick and somewhat rounded. Scales of chest and belly
of moderate size and strongly keeled. Fifty transverse rows from limb to limb, and
from sixty to sixty-four irregular rows round the body. The fore leg extends to the
tip of the snout, the hind one to the angle of the jaw. A slight fold above and in
front of the shoulder. General colour, olive on the upper surface of the body, irregularly
variegated with brown and yellow, these colours having a tendency to arrange
themselves in cross bands. The lighter spots mark the enlarged scales. The scales
of the head are irregularly coloured brown and yellow. The slightly enlarged base
pf the tail is yellow; the rest, uniform olive-green. TJnder surface olive-green. A
broad black band from the posterior margin of the eye to the tympanum; two
narrow black bands below the eye; also one in front and three above. The sutures
of the labials are black. The nuchal crest is composed of six to eight triangular
spines, disappearing a short way behind the shoulder. The third and fourth toes
are of nearly equal length.
O. minor which is the species most closely allied to O. discolor, has a prominent
spine on the posterior end of the superciliary eminence and another above the ear,
and still another behind these two. I t is a short-bodied stout lizard with a short
head and prominent eyes. Its dorsal crest is low, and consists of enlarged spinous
scales. The enlarged scales on the side are variable in number, but the ordinary
scales which clothe the sides and back have the arrangement and general character
of the- scales of Calotes, whereas in Oriotia/ris the scales generally have the character
which they present in Japalura, from which it differs in its naked tympanum.
O. discolor is a very much larger lizard than O. minor, from which it is distinguished
by the entire absence of spines behind the eye and even the ear, and by
its much less strongly keeled scales.
The only character in which this species differs from the definition of the
genus Oriocalotes, as drawn up by Giinther from the characters of one species, is
the absence of the superciliary spine. The latter structure, however, is so little
developed in O. minor, that its absence in another lizard, presenting all the other
essential characters of the genus, is in no way remarkable. I t may be, however, that
further research will tend to unite Oriocalotes to Calotes, and Oriotiaris to Japalura.
O. minor has hitherto been found only in the Khasia Hills, and this species
would appear to represent it in the high region on the opposite side of the Irawady
valley.