Volume II Part 51 (1/2)

Inhabits Western Australia. Mr. J. Gould.

The underside is coloured somewhat like G. maculatus (G. gaimardii, Dumeril and Bibron) but the sides of the head near the ears are spinose, and the nape is distinctly crested.

But as Dumeril and Bibron's species is only described from a single specimen which is in a bad state, and has lost its epidermis, and as the description itself, though long, refers chiefly to parts which do not differ in the species of the genus, this species may prove not to be different from it.

These authors, in giving the character of Grammatophora gaimardii and G.

decresii, appears to place great reliance on the one having tubular and the other non-tubular femoral pores, which is a fact entirely dependent on the state in which the animal might be at the time when it was put into the spirits, as I have verified by comparing numerous specimens of different reptiles furnished with these pores.

But in this genus the size of the pores is apparently of less importance than in many others, for they appear to be quite invisible in some states of the animal: thus out of many specimens of G. muricata brought by Mr.

Gould from Van Diemen's Land and Western Australia, eight specimens have no visible pores; these specimens differ from the others in being of a rather paler colour beneath. This state of the pores may entirely depend on the manner in which they were preserved, for all these specimens had a slit made into their abdomen to admit the spirits; while in all the specimens in which this care had not been taken the pores are distinctly seen, sometimes moderately sized, and at others tubularly produced.

60. MOLOCH, Gray.

Body depressed, covered with irregular, unequal, small, granular plates, each furnished with a more or less prominent central spine, and with a series of large, conical, convex, acute spines; head and limbs covered with similar scales and spines; head small, with very large spines over each of the eyebrows; tail with irregular rings of large acute spines; femoral and suba.n.a.l pores none; teeth small, subequal; toes 5.5, short, covered above and below with keeled scales; claws long, acute.

The external appearance of this Lizard is the most ferocious of any that I know, the horns of the head and the numerous spines on the body giving it a most formidable aspect. The scales of the back are small and unequal; they gradually increase in size as they approach the base of the conical spines, which is surrounded with a ring of larger scales with longer spines; the large spines are conical; rather compressed, spinulose below, smooth and acute at the tip, and are usually furnished with a sharp-toothed ridge on the front edge, and sometimes on both. These spines only consist of a h.o.r.n.y sheath, placed on a fleshy process of the exact form and appearance of the spines they bear.

The scales of the underside of the body are of the same form as those of the back, and are furnished with similar but smaller and less produced spines. The back of the neck of the two specimens I have seen is furnished with a large rounded protuberance like a cherry, covered with large granular spinous scales, and armed on each side with a large conical spine; but I do not know if this is common to the species or merely accidental in these individuals; at any rate it adds considerably to the singularity of their appearance.

I have named this genus, from its appearance, after ”Moloch, horrid king.”

60. Moloch horridus, t. 2.

Pale yellow, marked with dark regular spots; sides and beneath with black-edged dark red similar spots.

Inhabits Western Australia. The Honourable Captain G. Grey, and John Gould, Esquire.

The marks on the body are very definite, but from the irregularity of their form they are not easily described.

The lips are dark brown, with two streaks up to the small spines on the forehead; there is a dark cross-band from the base of the two large horns over the eyebrows, running behind, and then dividing into broad streaks, one along each side of the centre of the back of the neck to between the shoulders, crossing the nuchal swelling. In the middle of the back there is a very large black patch nearly extending from side to side, and over the loins are two oblong longitudinal black spots; the dark lines commencing from the lower angle of each eye extend along the upper part of each side to the upper part of the groin; the front of the fore- and hind-legs, and the sides are marked with similar dark bands.

A dark band commences from the hinder part of the lower lip, merging in the throat, and expanding out so as to be united together at the back part of the chin. There is a large rather oblong spot in the centre of the chest and the hinder part of the abdomen, separated from each other by a large somewhat triangular spot on each side of the middle of the abdomen.

Body 4 1/2 inches.

This is the Spinous Lizard exhibited by Mr. Gould at the meeting of the Zoological Society in October 1840.

64. Tropidonotus mairii, Gray.

Olive, beneath pale olive, vertebral scales darker, slightly spotted; l.a.b.i.al s.h.i.+eld pale, dark edged. The dorsal and lateral scales keeled, placed in longitudinal series; the keels continued, equal; chin s.h.i.+elds two pairs, long; throat scaly on the sides, s.h.i.+elded in the middle; loreal s.h.i.+elds equal; one high anterior, and three small posterior ocular s.h.i.+elds; temples s.h.i.+elded; nostrils in the suture between the scales; the anterior frontal narrow, moderate; eyes large, convex, pupil round.

Inhabits New Holland, Dr. Mair, 39th Regiment.

White, in the Appendix to his Journal, mentions and figures two snakes (n. 1 and 2 page 258) but his descriptions are so short, and his figures so indistinct, compared with what are now required to determine the species of snakes, that I am unable to apply them with certainty to any of the species here recorded.

68. Naja bungaroides, var.

Brown. Varied with a few whitish cross bands; last series of scales and beneath whitish ventral s.h.i.+eld black in front; subcaudal plates, one-rowed; throat scaly; chin s.h.i.+elds two pairs; eyes lateral, pupil round; front pair of frontal plates short; nostrils lateral, in two small s.h.i.+elds, loreal s.h.i.+elds none; one large anterior, and two moderate posterior ocular s.h.i.+elds; lower temporal s.h.i.+eld in the l.a.b.i.al ones.

Scales quite smooth, broad.