Q8 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 



some part of India, and Hagria Vosmacrii, from Bengal, are kindred 

 forms which conduct to the genus Eumeces, 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 

 E. anguineus] the limbs are still remarkably diminutive, and (as in 

 E. isodactylus 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 Eunieces, however, the proportions are more those of 

 an ordinary skink, as again in the kindred genera Mabonia and 

 Plestiodon, which are widely distributed. 



In other series of Skinks, the distinctions of which are far from 

 being conspicuous, we again have limbless genera, or nearly so, 

 as the Australian Soridia lineata, which has one pair 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 Scincus qffidnalis 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 Sphenocephalus 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 Tropidophorinx, or second sub-family of 

 Skinks 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 Cydodus gigas of Australia, and the curious stump-tail 

 lizards, Trachydosaurns rugosus and T. 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. 

 Egernia Cunninghami 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 Cydodus gigas has bred 

 and proves to be viviparous. Of the species of Euprepes, of which 

 several inhabit the Indian region, some (as the very common E. ru- 

 fescens) are viviparous, and others (as E. miilticarinata) are oviparous. 

 These have three more distinct though not prominent keels upon 



