CROCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 



6G5 



the body. The superior pair of pale lines are not dark-edged above, 

 and are separated by six rows of scales as in E. tetragrammus. The 

 E. brevilineatus was discovered by IMr. G. W. jNIarnock near Helotes 

 Creek, on the front line of hills, 20 miles northwest of San Antonio, 

 Texas, and was afterwards obtained by Mr. Boll from near Fort Con- 

 cho, in the same State. 



Eumeees brevilineatus Cope. 



a:nelytropid.e. 



Anelytropidw Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1864, p. 228. — Boulenger, Ann. 



and Mag. Nat. Hist. (5), XIV, 1884, p. 120; Cat. Liz. Brit. Mus., 2d ed., Ill, 



1887, p. 430. 

 GymnophthalmiWiKGMANTS!, part, Herp. Mex., 1834, p. 11. 

 Scincoidieris Uiphlophihalmca Dumkril and Bibron, part, Erp. G(^n., \, 1839, pp. 



525, 832. 

 TiipliUnidcB Gray, part, Cat. Liz., 1845, p. 128. 



The following are the skeletal characters of this family: 



Premaxillary single. Epipterygoid present. Angular and surangu- 

 lar bones confluent. Supratemj)oral in contact with parietal, closing 

 the supratemporal foramen. Meckelian groove open. 



Tongue covered with imbricate papilla?.. Teeth few, conical, slightly 

 hooked, Interorbital septum well developed; no bony postorbital 

 arch; infraorbital fossa present, bounded by the palatine and trans- 

 verse bones; i)alatines and pterygoids not meeting on the median line 

 of the palate. Limbs absent ; pectoral and pelvic arches reduced to a 

 small, slender bone on each side. Abdominal ribs present. 



Body vermiform, with osteodermal plates, as in the Scincidte. Eyes 

 conciealed under the skin. No ear 0]>ening. No preanal pores. 



The few members of this family, a degraded type of the Scincidae, 

 with which they are closely connected through the genus Acontias, are 

 burrowers, and were at one time believed to be confined to tropical and 

 south Africa, but a genus which I added from Mexico shows that the 

 Scincoid lizards have undergone in the New World the same degenera- 

 tive process as in the Old World. 



SYNOPSIS OF THE GENf;KA. 



I. Longitudinal series of scales in odd number; several small scales border the anal 

 cleft. 

 Nostril pierced between the rostral, a nasal, and the first labial . . Anehjiropsia Cope. 



Nostril pierced in the rostral only Feylinia Gray. 



II. Longitudinal series of scales in even number; a large prseanal scale; rostral 

 covering the snout Typhlomurus Wiegmanu, 



