674 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. 



Three supposed species have been described, but I believe that two 

 of them are referable to a siugle, rather variable form. 



The range of the genus is confined, with present knowledge, to the 

 southern part of the Pacific district. 



ANNIELLA PULCHRA Gray. 



Anniella pulehra Gray, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (2), X, 1852, p. 440; Zool. Her- 

 ald, p. 154, pi. XXVIII.— Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. PLila., 1864, p. 230.— 

 BocouRT, Miss. Sci. Mexique, Reptiles, p. 460, pi. xxii G, fig. 2.— Boulen- 

 GER, Cat. Liz. Brit. Mus., 2d ed., II, 1885, p. 299.— Cope, Proc. Amer. Phil. 

 Soc, 1892, p. 215, pi. II, fig. 4, 



AnnieUa nigra Fischer, Abhandl. Naturwiss. Ver. Hamburg, IX, 1885 (separate 

 copy, p. 9).— BouLENGER, Cat. Liz. Brit. Mus., 2d ed., II, 1885, p. 300. 



Fig. 138. 



ANNIELLA PULCHRA GRAY. 



X3. 



Cat. No. 16022, U.S.N.M. 



Body depressed cylindric >tail obtuse, about one-half as long as body, 

 but varying somewhat in length. Scales smooth, everywhere equal, in 

 generally thirty rows, but sometimes in twenty-eight and even twenty- 

 six. Head but little wider than body posteriorly, contracting radially 

 to an obtuse, moderately depressed muzzle, which projects beyond the 

 lower jaw. Preanal scales generally larger than those which precede 

 them, but not much. 



Rostral plate bounded posteriorly chiefly by the nasals, but also at 

 the apex by the internasoloreal line, which have a short common suture 

 on the middle line. Posterior to these there is a frontonasal, which is 

 wider than long. Posterior to this is a large plate, probably composed 

 of the fused frontal and frontoparietals. This is notched on the pos- 

 terior border for a small interparietal. Posterior to these plates is a 

 series of five smaller ones, of which two laterals on each side may be 

 regarded as parietals, and the median an occipital. Posterior to these 

 a few scales are larger than those of the body generally. 



There are six superior labials, of which the first is beneath the nasal 

 and part of the rostral, and is very narrow. The second is the largest 

 and is longer than high, and is bounded above by the loreointernasal 

 and the first and second preoculars. The third, fourth, and fifth labials 

 are higher than long, and the third and fourth reach the eye, unless cut 

 off entirely (which it is always in great part) by the inferior preocular. 

 Nasal triangular with the apex posterior, deeper than long. Nostril rela- 



