CYCLODUS. 237 



maxillary teeth of this genus are conical, obtuse, and sometimes 

 slightly incurved. 



In the short-footed Scinks {Sphenops, Wagler), the palate is 

 unarmed ; and the maxillary teeth are conical, straight, pointed, and 

 smaller and more numerous than in the common Scink, The 

 Gallywasps {Diploglossus) have the jaws armed with equal, close-set, 

 simple, conical teeth, sometimes subcompressed at the crown. The 

 palate is edentulous. The teeth are compressed, with cuneiform 

 crowns in most of the species of Gongylus, d. & b. In the sub-genus 

 Eumeces, they are equal, conical and only slightly compressed at the 

 summit. In the carinated scink, and its congeners (Euprepes) the 

 pterygoids are armed with teeth : these are particularly numerous in 

 the golden Scink (Euprepes cyprius), in which each pterygoid supports 

 two rows of short, straight, strong conical teeth ; the maxillary teeth 

 resemble those of the other Euprepes. Cuvier(l) figures the cra- 

 nium of a large species of Scink, allied by its short tail to the Lacerta 

 Scinco'ides of Shaw, in which the maxillary teeth have expanded 

 crowns with a dentated margin, (PL 66, fig. 5, 5") : the pterygoid 

 teeth are wanting. 



Cyclodus. — The present genus of Australian Scincoid lizards 

 differs from the rest of the tribe in the subhemispherical form of 

 the teeth, which resemble tubercles instead of more or less pointed 

 cones, and the species manifest a corresponding difference in their 

 habits and the nature of their food. 



The dentition of the Cycl. nigroluteus is figured in Plate 66, fig. 7. 

 The intermaxillary bone has depressions for twelve teeth, of which 

 only the alternate ones are usually in place : they are of very small 

 size, with the fang compressed laterally, and the crown antero-poste- 

 riorly, so as to resemble a true incisor in form, the summit sloping 

 to an edge from behind forwards, with the middle of the cutting 

 surface a little produced. Each superior maxillary bone has depres- 

 sions for fourteen teeth ; they quickly increase in size and exchange 

 their conical for a sub -hemispherical crown : the eighth to the thir- 

 teenth inclusive are the largest teeth, they are set obliquely, and 

 pretty close together. In the lower jaw there are two small incisors 

 at the anterior part of each premandibular bone corresponding with 

 0) Ossem. Foss, 8vo. 1836, t, x, p. 56. 



