32 



Notes on some South Australian Lizards. 



By J. Gr. Otto Teppee, P.L.S., Corr. Memb. 



[Eead May 2, 1882.] 



In tlie course of tlie last week o£ December, 1881, two rare and 

 remarkable lizards were banded to me by Mr. Bilney, Kangarilla, 

 wbo caugbt tbem in the Tertiary scrub adjoining that town- 

 ship. 



Turning to Gray's "Lizards of Australia," 1867, it is easy to 

 see that one is a very near relation to Hinulia Gerrardi, from 

 Eockhampton, Queensland ; but neither the coloring nor the 

 proportion of the various parts of the figure agree with the 

 specimen. The transverse bands are much more dissimilar, 

 some from the one side not meeting those from the other at all 

 in the middle of the back, while there are short but very dis- 

 tinct rudiments of bars between the principal ones, which are 

 scarcely indicated in Gray's figure by adventitious light 

 markings. 



Then, again, the figure of H. Gerrardi shows thirteen light 

 transverse bars from the base of the tail to its tip, while the 

 Kangarilla specimen presents only five or six distinct ones and 

 one or two faint ones. Another difference is seen in the much 

 shorter tail in proportion to the body. 



When caught from under the rocks it was very lively, and 

 exerted itself much for a day or two to escape, even snapping at 

 the hand, but it soon became quiet, taking raw and cooked meat 

 freely from between one's fingers. The example is unique. 



Another species of the genus Hinulia Greyii in Gray's work 

 (plate 10), which is recorded by him from Swan River, has 

 lately been noticed by me living, seemingly in pairs, under rocks, 

 close to the river Onkaparinga. My specimens appear to be 

 somewhat larger than the one figured by Gray, but in other 

 respects there seems to be no difference. 



The third species is one of the snake-like lizards, which are 

 considered and treated by most people as snakes. It is a Pygopiis, 

 the genus being easily distinguished by the large plates of the 

 head and the flapper-like rudiments of the hind legs at the base 

 of the tail, and was taken from a small hole in sand by the 

 same person who captui'ed, in the same locality, the large 

 Hinulia. 



The specimen differs very much in detail from PygopiLs 



