CROCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 



467 





'% 



rostrum with a few brown blotches. Edges of eyelids and whole under 

 surfaces opaque white. 



Body everywhere ^except on the belly) covered with perfectly uni- 

 form, excessivelj^ minute, rounded tubercles or granular scales, much 

 too small to be appreciable hy the naked eye; they are, however, rather 

 suialler on the head all round. The lateral granules change gradually 

 on the belly to rhombic, imbricated, cariiiated scales, arranged regularly 

 in quiiu'unx and Itecoming a little larger to the center. They begin on 

 the lower part of the throat and cover the under surface of the hind 

 legs: th.ey are a little larger than elsewhere between the insertion of 

 the hijul legs. The tail is occupied by a succession of short whorls of 

 nearly eipial square scales as large as those on the belly, the inferior 

 ones largest. The ear opens abruptly as an oval deep cavity. There 

 are no palatine teeth. The 

 only plates on the head 

 consist of those margining 

 tbe jaws, consisting of a 

 large, nearly equal rostral 

 and mental and about 

 labials (upper and lower 

 each ), the posterior smaller. 

 These are margined by 

 scales rather larger than 

 the average of those on 

 the head. The annular 

 nostril is in the center of a 

 sujall plate with narrow 

 edges, placed above the 

 junction of the rostral and 

 the first labial. It is mar- 

 gined behind by two rather 

 square i)lates, and anteri- 

 orly hy a long, narrow one 

 api)lied against the rostral. The orbits are large, the eyelids Nery full, 

 continuous, and uniform with the supra- and infraorbital region. Each 

 has a series of narrow quadrate i)lates on its edge. 



The toes have no lateral pallets, but are conical, tapering to the 

 claws, although depressed and slightly denticulated laterally. Beneath 

 they are covered with transverse tubercles arranged in two or three 

 longitudiiml series, the central widest. The claws are very small, 

 quite straight, slender, and apparently not retractile; they are scarcely 

 visible in a sheath of scales. The fingers are long and nearly eijual, 

 the first and fifth reaching opposite the same point — the penultimate 

 articulation of the third. The fourth toe is longest; the third and 

 second successively shorter by about a daw; tlie fifth about eipial to 

 the first and much shorter than second. The hind foot is about as long 



Fig. 86. 



EUBLEPHARIS VARIEGATOS BAIRD. 



a, X 3; h-e, X2. 



Helot es, Texas. 



foil,., tion of E. V>. Cop,-. 



