133 



L Y G O S O M A .—Grmj. 



Genus Lygosoma. — Characters. Nostrils open in a single plate; anterior 

 frontal plates wanting; palate without teeth, and with a superficial triangular 

 notch near its posterior margin; scales of the body smooth. 



LYGOSOxMA LATERALIS.— L»in»Ms. 

 Plate XIX. 



Characters. Head short; snout rather full; tail very long; body, as well as 

 extremities and tail, above bronze, or at times chestnut coloured; throat silver- 

 white; abdomen yellow; tail beneath, bluish, mottled with grey; a broad, black, 

 lateral band from the head to near the extremity of the tail. 



SvNONrMES. Scincus lateralis, Say, in Long's Exped. to Rock. Moun., vol. ii. p. 384. 

 Scincus unicolor, Harlan, Journ. Acad. Nat. Scien., vol. v. p. 156. 

 Scincus lateralis, Harlan, Med. and Phys. Res., p. 139. 



Lygosoma lateralis, Dumeril et Bibron, Hist. Nat. des Rept., torn. v. p. 719. 

 Ground Lizard, Vulgo. 



Description. The head is short, and resembles a four-sided pyramid of nearly 

 equal faces, truncated at its apex so as to make the snout rounded. The vertical 

 plate is elongated-pentagonal, terminating in a point behind; there are four 

 superior orbital plates, large, of irregular form, and bordered externally with a 

 series of minute plates; the frontal are irregularly pentagonal, longest transversely. 



