101 



SCINCUS ERYTHROCEPHALUS.— GiUiams. 



Plate XXII. 



Characters. Head large, broad behind, and covered with plates; snout 

 elongated and rounded; body olivaceous; head bright red; jaws armed with strong 

 teeth. 



Synonymes. Scincus erythrocephalus, GiUiams, Jour. Acad. Nat. Scien. Phil., vol. i. p. 

 461, pi. xviii. 

 Scincus erythrocephalus, Harl., Jour. Acad. Nat. Scien., vol. vi. p. 11. 

 Scincus Americanus, Harl., Med. and Phys. Res. p. 138. 

 Scorpion, Vulgo. 



Description. The head is large, broad behind, contracted in front of the eyes, 

 narrow, but rounded at the snout. The vertical plate is pentagonal, narrow 

 behind, broader, with an acute angle before. There are five superior orbital 

 plates that make the ridge above the eyes. The occipital plates are five in 

 number; the two anterior small and rhomboidal; the two posterior quadrilateral 

 and large, with a long narrow pentagonal plate between them. The frontal plates 

 are pentagonal; the anterior frontal are smaller and rhomboidal; wedged in 

 between the frontal and anterior frontal is a large hexagonal plate, reaching to a 

 plate behind the nares. The rostral plate is triangular, smaller, and rounded 

 above. The nasal plate is single, and rhomboidal in shape; between this and the 

 orbit are three plates, the smallest in front, the largest behind. There are three 

 anterior orbital plates, the middle one of which is the largest; and three posterior, 

 the upper being the largest. The lower margin of the orbit is completed by the 

 sixth and seventh labial plates, of which there are eight; the posterior very large. 



