E. Waterhouse Hawkins del;
Printed by C. Hullmandel.
| DIMENSIONS. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Inches. | Lines. | ||
| Length | of the head | 1 | 0 |
| of the body | 2 | 2 | |
| of the tail | 3 | 8 | |
| Total length | 7 | 0 | |
| Length | of anterior extremity | 1 | 1 |
| of posterior extremity | 1 | 6 | |
Taken at Port Desire, on the coast of Patagonia.
Squamis capitis planis; caudâ corpore cum capite breviore.
Habitat, Port Desire.
Description.—Head thick and clumsy, longer than it is broad, muzzle obtuse, suprà-orbital arches slightly elevated. Nostrils as in the former species, in size, form, and situation. Ears subtriangular, the margin simple. Neck considerably contracted, with a longitudinal fold on each side, and a distinct transverse fold on the throat. Body rather broad, slightly depressed, perfectly even, without any central crest or elevation. The tail is shorter than the head and body, slightly triangular at its base, tapering regularly to its extremity. Limbs of moderate length; the toes of each foot longer than in D. Bibronii, and those of the fore-feet more unequal, the third being the longest, then the fourth, the second, the fifth, and the first. The fore-legs placed against the side reaches to about two-thirds of the distance between the shoulder and thigh; the hinder foot placed in the same manner reaches to the axilla.
The scales of the head are quite flat, a character in which this species differs remarkably from the former, although in their number and arrangement they are very similar. The occipital scale is flat and hexagonal. Between the labial scales and the suborbital, there are, in addition to the regular series of larger supralabial scales, at least three distinct series of smaller ones; whereas in D. Darwinii there is but one.
The scales of the temples, the neck, the body, the limbs and the tail, are similar to those of the former species in general form and arrangement, excepting that they are smaller and less elevated. Those beneath the anterior part of the lower jaw are much smaller; but the rest on the under parts are similar to the former.
The head is of a dull light-brown colour, with a few obscure darker spots. The general ground colour of the back is “bluish gray, tinged with rust colour;” there are five transverse bands across the back, which are composed principally of numerous, close, small, dark-brown spots, on a bluish-gray ground, darker than the intervals, and without any red tinge; and each band is marked on the posterior margin with strongly defined semilunar indentations, bordered with yellowish-white, or bright yellow. These bands are continued on the tail, where they become half-rings.
| DIMENSIONS. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Inches. | Lines. | ||
| Length | of the head | 1 | 2 |
| of the body | 2 | 9 | |
| of the tail | 3 | 5 | |
| Total length | 7 | 6 | |
| Length | of anterior extremity | 1 | 4 |
| of posterior extremity | 2 | 1 | |
Cristâ suprà cervicem elevatiore, suprà dorsum humiliore; tuberculis verticalibus subdepressis, occipitalibus conicis; caudâ tereti.
This species was first described by Mons. Bibron in the “Histoire des Reptiles,” and so fully as not to require any detailed account of its characters here. It has not, however, hitherto been figured, and it is thought very desirable to embrace so good an opportunity of giving a representation of so interesting an animal. Its most important structural peculiarities will be alluded to in the account of the next species, which is an aquatic form, whilst the present is strictly terrestrial. The toes are long, compared with those of the other, and so unequal as to constitute essentially an ambulatory form.
By Mr. Darwin’s observations we are now enabled fully to confirm Mons. Bibron’s suggestion, that this species was from the Galapagos, and to establish the genus as strictly appertaining to that curious and interesting locality.