SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNT OF THE SPECIES. 175 



Angtjidae. 

 49. Celestus de la sagra (Cocteau). 

 Plate 14, fig. 13. 

 Culebrita de cuairo patas. 



Diagnosis: — A smooth cylindrical shiny burrowing lizard with short, 

 degenerated Umbs and small weak toes. 



Description: — Adult M. C. Z. 7,924. Cuba: near Havana, Spring of 

 1910. Jesus Valdivia. 



Rostral oblong, rectangular, almost invisible from above, followed by a 

 pair of supranasals well in contact; a pair of frontonasals larger than the supra- 

 nasals, also broadly in contact; prefrontal large, undivided, with an obtuse 

 projecting angle in front and a straight border behind forming a suture with 

 the entire anterior border of the frontal; frontal squarish, longer than broad, 

 longer than the distance between the supraoculars; a postfrontal, or fronto- 

 parietal, plus another small shield separating the supraoculars from the parietals 

 on each side; parietals large, separated from each other by a nearly triangular 

 interparietal and a rather large diamond-shaped occipital; five supraoculars; 

 a single nasal in contact with the rostral, the nostril being pieced in the posterior 

 half; three loreals in a row between nasal and preocular, first in contact with 

 frontonasal only, second with frontonasal and prefrontal, third in contact with 

 prefrontal, first supraocular and a superciUary as well as preocular; a long 

 angular subocular wedged between and separating widely the fifth and sixth 

 supralabials ; eight supralabials ; three large temporals in the first row forming 

 a semicircle behind the eye; mental very small, narrower than rostral, followed 

 by a large median postmental; four large chin-shields, the first two in contact 

 with the inf ralabials ; ear opening small, round, about the size of the first supra- 

 labial, body elongate, the distance between the tips of the adpressed fore and 

 hind limbs being far greater than the distance from tip of snout to arm; thirty- 

 four scales around the body, dorsals finely striated, laterals smooth; fore leg 

 shorter than distance of tip of snout from ear opening; five fingers, all short, 

 third longest; hind leg short; five short toes, fourth longest; tail long, cyhndric, 

 (encUng in a point), covered with scales like those of body, the two median rows 

 beneath very sUghtly enlarged. 



Colour (fresh in alcohol) : — Above grayish brown ; a dark lateral longi- 

 tudinal band, consisting of a distinct dark Une along the upper part of the side 



