icith Rudimentary Limbs. 147 



Soridia and Pholeophilus. 

 In the British Museum there are : — 



1. The types of Soridia lineata, Gray (1839), renamed 

 Prozpeditus by Dume'ril and Bibron. They were collected by 

 Gilbert in Western Australia ; and their Australian origin is 

 confirmed by other specimens received by Mr. Buchanan from 

 the same country, and by the occurrence of a second, closely 

 allied species, Soridia miopus (Gthr.), in Champion Bay. 



2. The types (two specimens) of Pholeophilus capensis, 

 Smith (111. S. Afr. Rept. App. 1849). This author says, 

 p. 15 : — " The two specimens I possess were obtained in Little 

 Namaqua Land, and were found under a loose stone, in a 

 burrow like what is formed by an earthworm." 



Now all these specimens are specifically identical*] and as I 

 am not yet prepared to admit that so singular a form as 

 Soridia is common to South Africa and Western Australia, I 

 can at present arrive at no other conclusion but that Sir A. 

 Smith, who does not say that he himself found the examples, 

 received them from some other person, either at Cape Town 

 or in England, and was misinformed as regards their locality f. 



Herpetosaura J inornata. 



Lithophilus inornatus, Smith, 111. S. Afr. Rept. App. p. 12 (1849; 



generic name preoccupied). 

 Herpetosaura arenicola, Peters, Wiegm. Arch. 1855, p. 48. 



Scales in 20 series round the middle of the body; 104- 

 112 scales in a series between the chin and vent. In one 

 specimen a minute rudiment of the hind limb is visible. The 

 very small shield behind the nostril is sometimes confluent 

 with the first upper labial. There are three specimens in the 

 British-Museum collection : — 



a. Type of the species. S.Africa. Presented by Sir A. Smith. 



b. Adult. Port Natal. Presented by the Rev. H. Calloway. 



c. Half-grown. Port Natal. Purchased of Mr. T. Ayres. 



Herpetosaura atra. 

 Scales round the middle of the body in 23 series ; about 



* Bibron has already recognized this fact ; but he thought the species 

 to be from the Cape. 



t In this respect it may be of some importance to mention that these 

 two specimens had been previously preserved in turpentine — a method 

 which, as Mr. Ford informs me, had been frequently adopted by one of 

 the Verreauxs, who is known to have collected in Australia, and from 

 whom Sir A. Smith procured many specimens. 



X Thi3 genus, as well as Sepomorphus coffer (Peters, 1861), is to be 

 added to my Synopsis of Sepida in Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 240. 



10* 



