98 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 
some part of India, and Hagria Vosmaéri, from Bengal, are kindred 
forms which conduct to the genus Humeces, the species of which are 
very numerous, and spread over nearly all the different countries 
between or near the tropics, and in certain of them (as the Burmese 
EF. anguinus) the limbs are still remarkably diminutive, and (as in 
E. tsodactylus of Cambodia) the fore and hind limbs are placed very 
far apart, the body and tail being long and anguiform. In various 
other species of Lwmeces, however, the proportions are more those of 
en ordinary Scink, as again in the kindred genera A/abonia and 
Plestiodom, which are widely distributed. 
In other series of Scinks, the distinctions of which are far from 
being conspicuous, we again have limbless genera, or nearly so, 
as the Australian Soridia Jineata, which has one pai of small, 
posterior, undivided extremities, while in another Australian form, 
the Rhodona punctata, the anterior pair of limbs are simple and 
undivided, while the hinder divide into two unequal toes, and the 
two pairs of limbs are situate as distantly apart. And thus we may 
continue to trace the successive gradations, in sundry genera, until 
we arrive at the Scncus officinalis of North Africa, a well-known 
reptile, the geographical range of which extends eastward into 
Afghanistan, and which was formerly in considerable. request for its 
supposed medicinal properties. Indeed, this notion still prevails in 
Hindustan, into which country dried specimens of both this reptile 
and of Sphenocephaius tridactylus (p. 95) are brought by Afghan 
traders, and are sold in the bazaars. Both of these are Sand Lizards, 
which burrow into the sand with great rapidity. 
We now come to the Z7ofpidophoring, or second sub-family of 
Scinks indicated by Dr. Gray (vide p. 96), which have always well- 
developed limbs, the body only moderately elongated, and the scales 
variously keeled. Several species of larger size appertain to this 
series, as the Cyvclodus gigas of Australia, and the curious stump-tail 
lizards, Zrachydosaurus rugosus and ZT. asper, of the same insular 
continent, which latter have most prominently rugous scales, and the 
tail literally appearing like the short and abrupt stump of one. 
LEgernia Cunninghamt and Tropidolesma (of different species) are. 
other comparatively large Australian Lizards ; and examples of most » 
of those that have been mentioned may generally be seen alive in 
the London Zoological Gardens, where the Cycodus gigas has bred 
and proves to be viviparous. Of the species of Luprepes, of which 
several inhabit the Indian region, some (as the very common £&. ru-— 
fescens) are viviparous, and others (as #. muticarinata) are oviparous. 
These have three more distinct though not prominent keels upon 
