139 



square scales, forming rows. Limbs short, with short, thick, 

 compressed digits; claws slightly compressed, short. 



Reddish-brown above; lower parts yellow with brown mar- 

 blings; lower part of head brown. Length of head and body 

 200 mm.; tail 220 mm.; fore limb 30 mm. hind limb 40 mm. 



Habitat: Borneo (Rejang river, Sadong!, Sarawak!). 



A very rare lizard. 



5. Fam. Anguidae. 



Body vermiform, covered with squarish imbricate scales, 

 under which are bony plates; these plates have a system of 

 fine tubules, arranged irregularly or forming radiating figures. 

 Head with large symmetrical shields. Tongue composed of 

 two portions, the anterior part thin, bifid, covered with imbricate 

 papillae, retractile into a sheath, formed by a transverse fold, 

 the posterior part thick, bifid, covered with villose papillae; 

 when the tongue is fully extended, no trace of the transverse 

 fold between the two parts is to be seen (fig. i.<?); pleurodont. 

 Eye distinct; ear distinct or concealed. Limbs more or less 

 developed, sometimes absent externally. Rudiments of the 

 pectoral and pelvic arches always present. No femoral or 

 praeanal pores. They are terrestrial. 



The Indo-Australian Archipelago inhabits only one genus. 



I. Ophisaurus Daudin. 



(Daudin, Hist. Rept. VII p. 346, 1803). 



A lateral fold. Scales squarish-rhomboidal, forming straight 

 longitudinal and transverse series. External limbs absent, or 

 reduced to a rudiment of the hind pair. Teeth with conical 

 or subspherical crowns; pterygoid teeth present. 



Distribution. South-Eastern Europe; North Africa; South- 

 Western Asia; Himalayas; Burma; Borneo; Central America. 



A single species. 



I. Ophisaurus biittikoferi Lidth. 



ophisaurus Buttikoferi^ v. Lidth de Jeude, Notes Leyden Mus. XXV 1905, p. 192. 



Lateral teeth conical. Azygos praefrontal three fourths the 

 greatest width of the frontal, as broad as the interparietal and 



