56 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



Range outside Victoria : W. Australia, N.W. Australia, Dirk 

 Hartog I., Thursday I., Port Essington, Gayndah (Queensland), 

 (Brit. Mus.). 



SCINCID^. 



Characters of the Family. 



External Form. 



Head slightly depressed ; body more or less round. Tongue 

 moderately long, free, and feebly nicked in front ; covered with 

 imbricate scale-like papillje. 



Tail usually long, cylindrical, covered with scales similar to 

 those on the body, rather fragile, slowly reproduced. 



Li?nbs very various, from well-developed to rudimentary. 



Eye and Ear. — Eye moderately large, pupil round, eyelids 

 usually well developed, movable — except in Ablepharus — scaly or 

 with a transparent disk. Tympanum, usually more or less 

 exposed. 



Tegutnents. 



Skin covered with cycloid-hexagonal rarely rhomboidal imbri- 

 cate scales, which may be either smooth or keeled, dorsals usually 

 the largest, and laterals smallest. Head covered with .symmet- 

 rical shields. No femoral pores. 



Efido-skeleton. 



Skull slightly depressed, pi'remaxillary bones two, sometimes 

 incompletely separated ; nasal double ; frontal single or double ; 

 parietal single ; postorbital and postfronto-temporal arclies com- 

 plete, osseous ; interorbital septum and columella cranii well- 

 developed ; infraorbital fossa present, bounded by the maxillary, 

 the transverse bone, the palatine, and often also by the pterygoid. 

 Skull with bony dermal plates over-roofing the supratemporal 

 fossa. 



Dentition pleurodont ; the teeth conical, bicuspid, or with 

 spha^roidal or compressed crowns ; the new teeth hollow out the 

 base of the old ones. Pterygoid teeth may be present. 

 Vertebra. 



