120 PLESTIODON ERYTHROCEPHALUS. 



sphenoidal teeth, is enough to distinguish it from all others of our Skinks, without 

 considering its geographical distribution. 



I have adopted, without hesitation, the genus Plestiodon, under which Duraeril 

 and Bibron have arranged this animal, which is distinctly separated from that of 

 Scincus by the great development of the head at the temporal region, its nume- 

 rous, strong, conical, sphenoidal teeth, its nostril in a single plate, &c. 



I cannot receive their specific name "laticeps" for this reptile, because I do 

 not suppose it, wath them, to be mdentical with the Scincus laticeps of Schneider.* 

 His description is too short and vague to distinguish his animal from those closely 

 allied, and he never saw but one specimen in the Museum at GiJtingen, in 

 which the "body was of a uniform greyish-brown colour above, and the tail had 

 two black spots near the extremity." 



Another animal of the same species, he says, existed in his time in the collec- 

 tion of Tilesius, at Leipsic, "the body of which was shaded with black spots, and 

 had the tail annulated with black bands," (in cauda vero anulatum apparet,) 

 which is certainly very unlike our animal. Daudm even, who copies Schneider 

 in his description of the Scincus laticeps, as there were no specimens of it in 

 the Garden of Plants at Paris when he wrote his excellent work on reptiles, 

 thought best to refer it to the animal represented in Seba,t and said by him to 

 come from Africa. 



* Hist. Amphib., Fas. ii. p. 1S9. f Thes. torn. ii. tab. xii. fig. 6. 



