1. Chlamydosaurus kingii (n.s.)
C. corpore luteo, nigro, variegato; squamis carinatis; pennula antice serrata; cauda corpore duplo longiore.
Chlamydosaurus kingii, Gray manuscripts.
Icon. Table A. Natural size.
Inhabits Port Nelson, north-west coast of Australia.
The colour yellowish-brown variegated with black: the head depressed, with the sides erect, leaving a blunt ridge on the upper part, in which the eyes are placed: the ridge over the eyes covered with larger scales than those over the head; eyes rather small, with a fleshy ridge above them; eye-lids covered with minute, and surrounded by a delicate serrated ridge of small upright scales: the lips surrounded by a row of oblong, four-sided scales, arranged lengthways, the front scale of the upper lip being the largest: the chin covered with narrow mid-ribbed scales, with a five-sided one in the centre, and several of larger size just over the front of the fork of the lower jaw: nostrils, surrounded by rather a large orbicular scale, situated nearly mid-way between the eye and the end of the upper jaw, the tubes pointing forwards: the side of the face has a very obscure ridge extending from the angle of the mouth to the under part of the ear: neck covered with small scales: frill arising from the hinder part of the head, just over the front of the ears, and attached to the sides of the neck and extending down to the front part of the chest, supported above by a lunate cartilage arising from the hinder dorsal part of the ear, and in the centre by a bone, which extends about half its length: this bone appears to be an elongation of the side fork of the bone of the tongue, but it could not be determined with certainty without injuring the specimen; each frill has four plaits, which converge on the under part of the chin, and fold it up on the side, and a fifth where the two are united in the centre of the lower part of the neck; the front part of its upper edge is elegantly serrated, but the hinder or lower part is quite whole; the outer surface is covered with keeled scales, which are largest towards its centre; the inner surface is quite smooth. The scales of the back are oval, smoothish; those of the lower part of the body and upper part of the legs acutely mid-ribbed, and of the sides and joints of the limbs minute. The tail is twice as long as the body, roundish, covered with acutely mid-ribbed scales, which towards the end form six rows, so as to render it obscurely six-sided; the end is blunt: the toes long, very unequal, varying in joints, as stated in the generic character (which includes also the claw joint) compressed, scaly; the claws hooked, horn-coloured.
Length of the tail: 12 inches.
Length of the body: 5 inches.
Length of the head: 5 1/2 inches.
Breadth of the head over the eyes: 1 inch.
Length of the thigh: 1 9/10 inches.
Length of the foot and sole: 2 2/10 inches.
Length of the outer edge of the frill: 10 inches.
This interesting lizard was found by Mr. Allan Cunningham, who accompanied the expedition as His Majesty's Botanical Collector for Kew Gardens, on the branch of a tree in Careening Bay, at the bottom of Port Nelson. (See volume 1.) It was sent by him to Sir Everard Home, by whom it was deposited in the Museum of the College of Surgeons,* which precluded my examination of its internal structure.
(*Footnote. Upon application to the Board of Curators of the College, I was permitted to have a drawing made of this curious and unique specimen for the Appendix of my work. The plate was engraved by Mr. Curtis, from an exceedingly correct drawing made by my friend, Henry C. Field, Esquire. P.P.K.)
Respecting this remarkable Lizard, Mr. Cunningham's journal contains the following remarks. "I secured a lizard of extraordinary appearance, which had perched itself upon the stem of a small decayed tree. It had a curious crenated membrane like a ruff or tippet round its neck, covering its shoulders, and when expanded, which it was enabled to do by means of transverse slender cartilages, spreads five inches in the form of an open umbrella. I regret that my eagerness to secure so interesting an animal did not admit of sufficient time to allow the lizard to show by its alarm or irritability how far it depended upon, or what use it made of, this extraordinary membrane when its life was threatened. Its head was rather large, and eyes, whilst living, rather prominent; its tongue, although bifid, was short and thick, and appeared to be tubular." Cunningham manuscripts.
Captain King informs me, that the colour of the tongue and inside of the mouth was yellow.
2. Uaranus varius, Merrem.
Lacerta varia, White, Journal of a Voyage to New Holland, 253, t. 38. Shaw, Nat. Misc. t. 83.
Tupinambis variegatus, Daud. Rept. iij. 76.
Monitor bigarre, Cuv. Reg. Anim. ij. 24.