376 Zoological Society. 



This genus is referrible to the Amphishcenidce , with which it 

 agrees in general form, in the structure and arrangement of the 

 scales, the concealed eyes and ears, and the short obtuse tail. 

 From the other genera of the family it is distinguished by the form 

 of its rostrum and of its singular compressed frontal plate, which 

 considerably resembles that which characterizes the genus Ty- 

 phlops. 



The second of these Reptiles belongs to the family Scincidce* It 

 is characterized by Mr. Bell as follows : 



Lerista. — Caput scutatum; palpebrce nullae; aures sub cute la- 

 tentes. Corpus gracile ; squamce laeves aequales. Pedes quatuor : 

 anteriores exigui, brevissimi, didactyli ; posteriores longiores, tri- 

 dactyli. Anus simplex, semicircularis ; pori prceanales etjemoralcs 

 nulli. 



Lerista lineata. Ler. ceneo-viridcscens, subtus pallidior ; 

 lineis binis dorsalibus et binis lateralibus nigris. Hab. in Australia. 



This new genus of Scincida: agrees with Gymnophthalmus, Merr., 

 and Ablepharus, Fitzing., in the absence of eyelids ; but differs 

 from both in the number of its toes : the former having 4-5, and 

 the latter 5-5, while Lerista has only 2-3. In addition to this dif- 

 ference in the structure of the feet, it is remarkably distinguished 

 by the want of external ears, and by its elongated and anguiform 

 body ; characters in which it agrees with Saiplios, Gray. The last- 

 named genus, however, possesses eyelids, and differs also in the 

 number of its toes from Lerista. 



Mr. Bell also read a paper, entitled " Observations on the Neck 

 of the three-toed Sloth, Bradypus tridactylus, Linn., demonstrating 

 that this Animal possesses only the Normal Number of Cervical 

 Vertebrce." 



By all preceding anatomists since the days of Hermann the num- 

 ber of the cervical vertebrae in the three-toed Sloth has been consi- 

 dered to be nine ; and the animal has consequently been regarded 

 as deviating in this respect from the other Mammalia, in which class 

 seven is the normal number of these parts, — a number which exists 

 equally in the short interval between the head and the thorax, 

 scarcely deserving the name of a neck, of the Cetacea, and in the 

 long flexile neck of the Camel and the Giraffe. It was natural 

 that so marked a deviation from a general law should attract con- 

 siderable attention, and numerous skeletons of the animal in which 

 it was stated to occur have accordingly been examined by Cuvier, 

 Meckel, and others, who have all, with the exception of the last- 

 named anatomist, concurred in the statement that nine cervical 

 vertebrce exist j Meckel alone hinting at the probability that what 

 had been previously regarded as the ninth cervical might, in truth, 

 be a first dorsal vertebra. On what grounds M. Meckel was in- 

 duced to offer this suggestion does not appear ; it is probable that 

 he was led to it by the form of the vertebra itself, which is altogether 

 that of a dorsal vertebra ; or he may have been guided by a statement 

 made by Cuvier that in a young individual examined by him the 

 transverse processes of the ninth cervical vertebra, as he described 



