SCINCID.^. 75 



PsEUDOPUS GRACILIS. The Khasya Glass Snake. 



Pseudopus gracilis, Gray, Lizards, p. 56. 



Dopasia gracilis, Gray, Ann. §• Mag. Nat. Hist. xii. 1853, p. 389. Gilnth. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1860, 



p. 172. 

 Ophiseps tessellatus, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xxii. p. 655. 



This species is very closely allied to its European congener, differing, however, from it by 

 the total absence of the rudimentary, scale-like hind limbs of that species. From the North 

 American Glass Snake it differs in having the palatine teeth small, and arranged in a very 

 narrow band. The upper surface of its head is covered with a large vertical plate and three 

 smaller occipitals behind, the space between the vertical and the rostral being filled up by 

 about five pairs of rather irregular frontals of unequal size ; the superciliaries are arranged 

 in tvvo series. The dorsal scales form fourteen longitudinal series, each series with a slight 

 continuous keel ; the ventral scales are smooth, in ten series. The upper parts are brown, 

 with some ii-regular black spots across the back. 



The typical specimen is from the Khasya Hills, 15 inches long, the tail measuring 10. 

 We may infer, from its close resemblance to Pseudopus })allasii, that its habits are similar. 

 It probably lives in dry places, under stones, feeding on small lizards, mice, &c.* The scaly 

 covering of the upper and lower parts is so tight, that it does not admit of the same extension 

 as in snakes or other lizards, and the Pseudojms, therefore, could not receive the same 

 quantity of food in its stomach as those animals were it not for the expansible fold of the skin 

 running along each side of its trunk. Whilst in other Saurians the whole skin of the belh' 

 and of the sides is extensible, the extensibility here is limited to a separate part of the skin. 



FAMILY OF SKINKS—SCINCW.^. 



Head covered with shields, which are symmetrically arranged. Tongue 

 slender, free, exsertile, terminating in two pointed lobes. Scales on the 

 back rounded, quincuncial, imbricate ; those on the belly similar to those on 

 the back and on the sides. No fold across the throat or along the side ; 

 no femoral or inguinal pores. Tail generally long-, rounded, fragile. Eyes 

 and eyelids well developed. Nostrils in a separate plate, between the frontal 

 and labial shields. Generally four limbs, moderately developed, sometimes 

 feeble or hidden below the skin. 



The species of this family are exceedingly numerous, and inhabit almost every part of the 



* Mr. Blytli's " Ophiseps " is said to be from Rangoon. 



L 2 



