Volume 2

A history of British reptiles / [Thomas Bell].

  • Thomas Bell
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A history of British reptiles / [Thomas Bell]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/56 page 66
    specimens are regularly formed and symmetrically placed ; but in others they are very irregular. There are three which are larger than the others,—namely, the vertical, and the pair of occipital plates. The scales of the back and sides are semi-oval, or somewhat lanceolate, imbricated, and distinctly carinated. They are disposed in eighteen series. The plates of the abdomen have nothing particular in their form ; they vary in number, but usually consist of about one hun¬ dred and forty to one hundred and fifty, and those of the tail are about thirty-five pairs. The general ground colour varies considerably. In some it is nearly olive, in others a rich deep brown, and in others a dirty brownish yellow; and when in high health, and shortly after having cast the skin, the surface is slightly iridescent in particular lights. A mark between the eyes, a spot on each side the hinder part of the head, and a zigzag line running the whole length of the body and tail, formed by a series of confluent rhombs, as well as a row of small irregular triangular spots on each side, all of a much darker hue than the ground colour of the body, and frequently almost black. I have a specimen in my collection which I received alive from Hornsey Wood, the ground of which was almost perfectly white, and all the markings jet black. The under parts are plumbeous in some, with lighter or darker spots, in others almost wholly black. The tendency of this species to vary in its colours has occasioned an erroneous multiplication of species by various authors. Some of the more remarkable and conspicuous varieties I proceed to describe.
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