96 BARBOUR— SOME NEW REPTILES [Ease 
Description.— Rostral broader than deep, hardly visible from above; 
internasals much shorter than praefrontals, less than one half the length; 
frontal once and one half as long as broad, about as long as its distance 
from the end of the snout, shorter than the parietals; loreal square; one 
prae- and two postoculars; temporals 1 + 1; eight upper labials, fourth 
and fifth entering the orbit; first pair of infralabials in contact behind 
the symphysial; two pairs of large chin shields, the anterior in contact 
with five infralabials. Scales smooth, in seventeen rows. Ventrals, 219; 
anal undivided; subcaudals, 80. Blue-black above, uniform throughout, 
steely blue below. 
Total length 112 em.; tail 24.5 em. 
Among the great number of reptiles secured by Professor Louis 
Agassiz and his assistants in Brazil, during the explorations of the 
Thayer Expedition, is a single specimen of a curious Amphisbzenoid 
lizard which appears to represent a genus and species hitherto 
unknown. 
Aulura gen. nov. Amphisbzenidarum. 
Generic characters— Similar in general to Lepidosternon, only having 
the nostrils pierced in large separate nasals, instead of in the rostral, and 
in having a groove-like constriction about the tail just posterior to the third 
complete caudal annulus, which is marked by the presence of an extremely 
narrow intercalated annulus, the distal portion of the tail beyond this 
sulcus being rather more swollen than the short interspace between the 
groove and the vent. 
Type species, Aulura anomala sp. nov. 
Aulura anomala sp. nov. 
Type, an adult from Brazil,! no. 4660, Mus. Comp. Zodlogy, collected 
in 1865 by the Thayer Expedition under the leadership of Louis Agassiz. 
Description.— Praemaxillary teeth, 1; maxillaries 4-4; mandibulars 6-6. 
1Unfortunately this is one of the very few specimens in this collection for 
which there are no more definite data. 
