ZOOLOGY — REPTILES. 9 



observation, five in number, there are but four. Professors Baird and Girard state that in some 

 specimens of Cnemidophorus ticjris "four longitudinal yellow stripes may be seen extending from 

 the occiput to the tall, and occasionally a little distance on the latter. In the young state, the 

 black patches predominate, unite and form, as it were, the ground color, and the yellow con- 

 stitutes irregular small spots." — (Vide Stansbury's Keport, Appendix 0, page 339.) 



The total length of Say's Ameiva tesselata is 1 foot, tail, 8^ inches — in this respect corre- 

 sponding with the above, but none of the specimens present the tesselated appeai-ance described 

 by Say, the "tranverse lines dividing the whole surface in a tesselated manner." 



FAMILY IV. 



CHALCIDID.E. 



Char. — "Body usually cylindrical, much elongated or serpentiform, with feet sometimes want- 

 ing, or generally little developed ; trunk almost always confounded with the head and tail, 

 presenting the traces of circular rings or verticillce, and, for the most part, longitudinally, a 

 rainure or fold of the skin between the abdomen and flanks ; head covered with shields or 

 polygonal plates ; teeth not implanted in the maxillary bones, but applied against their inter- 

 nal edge ; tongue free, but little extensible, broad, furnished with squamiform or filiform 

 papillje, notched at its point, and not enclosed in a sheath." — (Dum. et Bib.) 



GERRHONOTUS, Wiegmann. 



Char. — Tongue, arrow-shaped, its anterior half free, slightly emargiuate anteriorly, surface 

 velvety. Palatine teeth. Intermaxillary teeth, simple, conical. Maxillary teeth, cylindrical, 

 obtuse. Nostrils, lateral, each in a single plate, the naso-rostral ; eyelids. Membrane of the 

 tympanum below the edge of the meatus externus. Posterior supracranial plates not distinct 

 from the scales of the nucha. No spines upon the back. Four feet, each with five unequal 

 fingers ; smooth below. No femoral pores. A furrow the entire length of each side of the 

 body. — (Dum. et Bib) 



GEEEHONOTUS MULTIOAEINATUS. 

 Blainville. Nouvelles Annales du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, torn. 4, p. 289, pi. 25, 

 fig. 2. 



FAMILY V. 



SCINCIDJ^]. 



Char. 1. The head is covered above with large, thin, angular, corneous plates. 

 Char. 2. The jaws are furnished with closely set teeth. 



Char. 3. The tongue is flat, free, and notched in front ; not retractile in a sheath ; and is 

 covered entirely, or in part, with squamous or filiform papillae. 

 Char. 4. The neck is of the same size and form as the thorax. 

 2S 



