Zoology.} NATUEAL HISTORY OF VICTOEIA. IBeptiUs. 



Plate 153, Fig. 1. 



DELMA FRAZERI (Gray). 



Frazer's Delma. 



[Genus DELMA (Gray). (Sub-kingdom Vertebrata. Class Eeptilia. Order Sauria. 

 Sub-order LeptoglossEe. Tribe Geissosaura. Family Pygopidse.) 



Gen. Char. — Body long, slender, tapering, snake-Uke ; anterior limbs none ; posterior 

 limbs formed of small, flat, scaly, undivided flaps, one on each side of base of tail ; pre-anal 

 pores none ; head small, orate, with large symmetrical plates ; rostral plate large ; nostril in hind 

 outer corner of transversely oblong nasal plate on each side ; two pairs of transversely oblong 

 supra-nasal, or fronto-nasal, plates, like the nasals; inter-nasal, or pre-frontal, plate large, 

 heptagonal ; frontal moderate, heptagonal, pointed behind ; a pair of large parietal plates behind 

 the frontal, and a small occipital between their posterior ends. Ears ovate, open, distinct, with 

 simple edges. Scales hexagonal, smooth, unkeeled, small above ; two rows, wider, along belly, 

 one row of wider ones under middle of taU ; eyes round, with circular, scaly, imperfect, 

 immovable eye-lids ; pupil nearly circular, broad-oval, erect. Parietal bones separate. 

 Australia.] 



Description. — Body and tail sub-cylindrical, very slig-htly flattened below, 

 gradually tapering to a slender posterior point. Head semi-oval or sub-trigonal, 

 sides nearly straight, converging to a bluntly-rounded, narrow muzzle, the tip of 

 which measures to front edge of eye about as much as from posterior edge of eye to 

 anterior edge of ear; rostral plate large, pentagonal, twice as wide as high; nasals 

 small, transverse, quadrate, oblong, their inner ends touch, the outer end pierced 

 by the large nostril, which is surrounded also by the first upper labial and the 

 freno-nasal plate; naso-rostral plates transverselj^ quadrate, inner ends touching, 

 smaller than the nasals ; fronto-nasals large, pentagonal, touching along inner edge, 

 having freno-nasal and naso-rostral along longest front edge ; inner posterior edge 

 touching front edge on each side of inter-nasal; posterior outer edge touching a 

 large ant-ocular or loreal plate in front of the two temporal plates ; smallest outer 

 edge touching the first of the three small frenal plates extending over the labials from 

 the fi-eno-nasal to a group of three or four small plates in front of the eye; inter-nasal 

 or pre-frontal plate large, heptagonal, about as broad as long ; frontal heptagonal, a 

 little narrower and shorter than the pre-frontal, about one-third longer than wide, hind 

 angle between parietals ; two parietal plates, small, sub-pentagonal, inner edges in 

 contact; straight, pointed posterior ends with a very small occipital plate between 

 them; a large plate-like scale usually on each side of posterior lateral edge of 

 parietal; upper labials five, fourth, under the eye, longest; lower labials four, 

 first meeting under the chin behind the large trigonal mental plate; second very 

 large, nearly meeting under throat, others small. Ear large, longitudinally-oval, 

 slightly oblique, open, simple edged. Eye-lids covered with three rows of minute 

 scales. Hind leg-flap small, as long as four scales of back at base, or equal to^ space 

 from snout to orbit in males, shorter in females, covered with three rows of small 

 scales, four in the middle row, placed at a distance from the ear of 65 rows of back 

 scales. Scales of back small, sub-hexagonal, as broad as long, in fourteen to sixteen 

 rows ; belly, with two rows of from 50 to 60 pairs of larger hexagonal plates in 

 middle, about twice as wide as long; three large pre-anal plates in a transverse 

 row, middle one smallest ; plates of under-side of tail in three rows of transversely 

 hexagonal scales, middle row largest, nearly twice as wide as long near base, 

 gradually becoming smaller, less transverse and irregularly arranged towards the 



Vol. II.— Decadb XVI.-2A. [ 203 ] 



