VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY OF SOUTHERN LANDS.

921

fofter than the wool of the preceding year. The beauty of it indeed is fuch as to caufeit to be efhmated at fix {hillings the pound.” 0 caule

With refpeft to the fheep ofSpanifh origin, which form the main flock of the numerous flocks of New South Wales , they are the offspring of a nrettv confirmnumber of beautiful Merinos which the Englifh government has caufed at dffferemnmes to be transported to Port Jackfon and of thirty rams of exquifite beautydeftmed, as is faid, as a prefent from the viceroy of Peru to the court of Sminbut intercepted during the war by an Englifh cruizer, at a fhort diftance from where

they were embarked. •

In the courfe of m y excurfions rouiid about Paramatta, I procured a varietv nfanimals. More than a hundred and fifty fpecies of infers of novel defcription wereadded to my former collections ; among thefe, forty butterflies, the chief of them nfthe moft lively and fpfendid colours. Among the coleopetra, or beetle kind, was ,admirable cetonia claffed by me under the deflation orpheus, on account of a goldenlyre moft diftmclly marked on the middle of its back; the colour of the back is ,

emerald green. 1

The family of lizards which prefents fo many fingular fpecies in every part of NewHolland, furmfhed me here with many of confiderable intereft. One of thefe belong to the genus ftellio Cuv., and is remarkable above all its kind on account of theextreme flatnefs of its body, the thicknefsof which fcarcely exceeds 2, c centimeters* -it is in ength 11 centimetersf; arid in breadth 13, 5 centimeters |, and imperfectlyrefembles the torpilla or torpedo. From the fingularity of its fhape, a lhape hithertoundifcovered among this family, I have deduced its fpecific name of P ftellio Hifcofomus N. It has a very large goitre, filled with air, of an extreme deeo bh J

colour. ^

. ^ the genus fcincus, in that approximative genus which I have termed fcincoidus

in the tupmambo, and the gecko kind, Paramatta afforded me many remarkable foecies. I found here likewife that curious long-tailed gecko (gecko platurus,) defcribed"by Shaw, but which to me, by its form and .habitudes, feerned fo materially to differfrom the generality of the gecko tribe, that I have ranked it as a new genus underthe name of geckoides, which on account of its affinity, in the claffification of mnrWnnaturalifts, fhould immediately follow the gecko.

Infadl, all the geckos hitherto known, have their toes fhort, broad, flat depreffedand beneath-exhibit a number of fmall indurated leaflets, by means of which thev areenabled to climb the moft poliflied furface, or even run like flies on the roofs of apartments. The geckoides on the contrary have their toes elongated, laterally much com-P r ^ ed ’ and are deftn f e of the leaflets . ^ which the gecko is characterized. Fromthis firft difference in the organs of motion, refults, that the geckoides are incapable ofclimbing, and paffing a portion of their lives on trees like the major part of the geckos,with foliated toes. They inhabit low and muddy grounds, and live on the W ofaquatic infers, and on fome even of thefe infers themfelves. Their phyfioraomvrefembles that of the gecko, and is equally melancholy and repnlfive ; their eyes arelarge and protuberant, the pupil lineary and vertical: the whole of their body is ex-tremely flat, and their tail, fhaped like the head of a fpear, is divided into joints infuch manner that one can fcarcely touch it but it breaks off entirely from the

body.

Along the arid and fandy coafts of Leuwin’s Land, of Endraght, and De Witt’s

* F ar ts of an inch,

VOL. XI.

t 5 is inches.

4 inches.6 B

Land,'