Zoologt/.-i NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. [Reptiles. 



The scales and plates of the head are so variable that I have no 

 doubt Dr. Gitnther is right in uniting Dr. Gray's P. squamiceps 

 to P. lepidopus. I have several specimens with one small plate 

 between the inner ends of the posterior supra-nasals, as in our 

 Plate 152, Fig. la, and some in which there are two, one between 

 the anterior supra-nasals and one between the posterior supra-nasals ; 

 and one specimen with three in a median row, from one being 

 between the nasals also ; and in another the supra-nasal plates are 

 each doubled ; while the greater number of specimens have no 

 intercalated plates in midline, and only the normal number of plates, 

 as in our figure, Plate 153, Fig. 2h. In one specimen there are 

 two, small inter-parietal plates between the anterior ends of the 

 parietals ; in another of the var. squamiceios there are two fronto- 

 nasals on each side, as well as three pairs of supra-nasals and four 

 intercalary plates in midline between the inner ends of them and 

 the nasals. 



The original figure of Lacepede in the Annals du Museum 

 shows the leg-flaps nearly in the middle of the length, and Gray's 

 P. squamiceps has the tail only half the length of the anterior 

 ■ part, while in Dumeril and Bibron's figure the tail is twice and a 

 half as long as the part before the flaps, as in our figure, Plate 152, 

 Fig. 1. This latter is the correct proportion of the perfect animal, 

 but, like the English Slow-worm, it is so fragile during life that 

 it easily loses a portion of the hinder part of the body ; which lost 

 part is reproduced quickly, but in such a way that the cautious 

 observer can easily see when he is dealing with an individual 

 specimen to which such a common accident has happened, by 

 noting some slight difi^erence in color and the texture of the 

 scales, accompanied by a greater or less diminution of size from 

 the true proportion. This may be clearly seen in Lac^pede's 

 figure (although he does not seem to have noticed it), in which the 

 engraver has suddenly stopped the lines representing the keels of 

 the scales at a point where, no doubt, the fracture took place, and 

 beyond which the tail is a re-grown one of less than the original 

 length. Similarly, the lithographer in Gray's figure of the very 

 short-tailed P. squamicejys, clearly shows, by the difference of treat- 

 ment, where the new growth has reproduced the tail so much too 



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