Eremias. 259 



the eai', or between these two points, rarelj the eve, iu males, the axil 

 or the shoulder, rarely the elbow or the ear, in females ; foot 1^ to 1% 

 times as long as the head ; toes rather slender, not or but slightly 

 compressed. Tail If to 2 times as long as head and body iu females, 

 2 to 2h times in males. 



Upper head-shields smooth or slightly rugose. Nasals iu contact 

 with each other behind the rostral, the suture between them ^ to |^ the 

 length of the frontonasal, which is as long as broad or broader than 

 long ; prefrontals as long as broad or, usually, a little longer, forming 

 a suture in the middle, very rarely separated by a small azygos shield * ; 

 frontal usually shorter than its distance from the end of the snout, 1^ 

 to 2 times as long as broad, narrow behind ; parietals 11 to If times 

 as long as broad ; interparietal as large as the frontoparietals or a 

 little larger or a little smaller ; occipital rarely more than ^ the length 

 of the interparietal, rarely broader than the latter ,t often very small. J 

 4 supraoculars, first and fourth small, sometimes broken up into 

 2 or 3, first more often than not iu contact with the frontal ; 5, rarely 

 4, 6 or 7, superciliaries, first, or first and second longest ; a series of 

 granules, rarely incomplete, or one series in front and two behind, 

 between the supraoculars and the superciliaries. 3 nasals, lower in con- 

 tact with the rostral and the first upper labial § ; posterior small and 

 very rarely excluded fi'om the nostril ; anterior loreal usually twice as 

 long as deep, sometimes only 1| times, exceptionally divided into 2 or 3 

 (1 + 1 or 2 -f 1), as long as or shorter than the second, from which it 

 is exceptionally || separated by the prefrontal; 4, rarely 3 or 5, upper 

 labials anterior to the subocular, which is keeled below the eye, and 

 largely borders the mouth, its lower border much narrower than the 

 upper ; temporal scales small, granular, lower larger ; a narrow 

 tympanic shield ; no auricular denticulatiou. 



Lower eyelid with a transparent disc formed of two large, usually 

 black-edged scales, one in front of the other, with or without a series 

 of 2 to 5 small ones below them ; the anterior large scale often a 

 little larger than the other. 



5 or, more frequently, 6 pairs of chin-shields, the first three in 

 contact in the middle, the sixth narrow ; 19 to 26 gular scales in a 



* One male from El Kiibar. 



t Twice as broad in a female from the Helmand. 



X Separated from the interparietal by a small shield in one male from 

 Mt. Sinai and in one youn^ from Gwadar, by the parietals meeting in the 

 middle in one male from Pnli Hatun. 



§ L. G. Andersson (I.e.) mentions a si^ecimen from Tor, Sinaitic Peninsula, iu 

 which the lower nasal is in contact with the first and second upper labials. 



II In a single specimen from Mt. Sinai. 



