117 



PLESTIODON .—Diimeril et Bibron. 



Genus Plestiodon. — Characters. Nostrils open in the middle of the nasal 

 plate; palate with a broad mesial fissure, enlarged at its anterior extremity; 

 sphenoidal teeth numerous, short, straight, conical; all the scales smooth. 



PLESTIODON ERYTHROCEPHALUS.— Gt7//ams. 



Plate XVI. 



Characters. Head large, very broad behind, contracted before the eyes, and 

 covered with plates; snout elongated and rounded; body olivaceous; head bright 

 red; jaws and sphenoid bones armed with strong teeth. 



Synonymes. Scincus cr3'throcephalus, Gilliams, Journ. Acad. Nat. Scien. Philad., vol. i. 

 p. 4G1, pi. xviii. 

 Scincug erythrocephalus, Harlan, Journ. Acad. Nat. Scien., vol. vi. p. 11. 

 Scincus Americanus, Harlan, Med. and Phys. Res. p. 13S. 

 Plestiodon laticeps, Dumeril et Bibron, Hist. Nat. des Rept., torn. v. p. 705. 

 Scorpion, Vulgo. 



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

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

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

 irregularly quadrilateral and nearly of the same size, except the posterior, which is 

 triangular and smaller, and may be regarded as a posterior-orbital as it descends 

 a little behind the orbit. 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; behind these are two large, rhomboidal. 



