394 Mr. Bell on a new Genus of Scincide. 
several other new species of Reptilia, which he had received from the 
Swan River. 
The head of this little animal is rather pointed, the upper jaw project- 
ing a little beyond the under; the teeth are minute, simple, and 
numerous; the nostrils nearly round; the eyes, covered by a transparent 
cuticular plate, are destitute of eyelids, and surrounded by a circle of 
minute scales; the ears, as in the nguide, are wholly concealed by the 
scaly integument. The body is slender, continuous from the head, and of 
nearly the same size to the commencement of the tail ; it is covered by 
semicircular scales, which are perfectly smooth, and have entire margins. 
The fore legs are very distant from the hinder, extremely small, and fur- 
nished with but two minute toes, of which the inner is the longer; the 
hinder legs are about twice the length of the anterior, and have three 
toes, of which the outer is the longest, and the inner the shortest. The 
tail is as long as the head and body, slender and tapering. The anus is 
simple and protected by two large polished scales. There are neither 
femoral nor pre-anal pores, The general colour is a light metallic 
green, paler beneath; the head is spotted with blackish brown, and there 
are a pair of narrow black dorsal lines extending from the neck to the 
eud of the tail, and a pair of broader lateral ones, of the same colour. 
In. Lin. 
Torl lene Pye 2 eee 
Lengthofthehead . * . 3 
Rody 1 V8. oRe6 
—————— tal. . . . 1 9 
2 
ol 
fore foot . . 
hinder foot. 
Diameter of the body . . 2 
The foregoing description will at once shew that whilst this little animal 
agrees with the rest of the family of Scineide in all its general characters 
of form and structure, and in the arrangement of its scales, it possesses 
some very interesting peculiarities which at once «distinguish it from 
every other genus. It agrees with the genera Gymnophthalmus (Mer~ 
rem), and 4blepharis (Fitzinger) in the absence of eyelids; but it differs 
from both of these in the number of toes; the former having 4—5, the 
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