SCINCID^. 



261. Chalcides ocellatus. 



Lacerta ocellata, Forsk. Hist. Anim. p. 13. 



Seps (Gongylus) ocellatus, Blanf. Zool. E. Pers. p. 395 ; Slum Zool. 



Sind, p. 357. 

 Chalcides ocellatus, Bouleng. Cat. Liz. iii, p. 400. 



Snout obtuse, scarcely projecting beyond the labial margin ; eyes 

 moderate; ear-opening much larger than the nostril, subtriangular 

 or subquadrangular. Nostril pierced just above the suture between 

 the rostral and the first labial : a postnasal, in contact with the first 

 and second labials ; suprauasals distinct ; frontal longer than broad ; 

 usually the fifth labial entering the orbit. Sides of belly rounded. 

 Scales smooth or feebly striated, 28 to 34 (to 40 in specimens from 

 Morocco) round the middle of the body. Limbs short but well 

 developed and pentadactyle ; the length of the hind limb is usually 

 less than the distance from the end of the snout to the fore limb, 

 and enters 3^ to 4| times in the length from snout to vent. Tail 

 shorter than head and body. Olive or brown above, with black 

 spots, each bearing a central white dot or longitudinal shaft ; 

 lower parts white. 



From snout to vent 5| inches ; tail 4. 



Hob. North and North-east Africa, islands of the Mediterranean, 

 Syria, Arabia, Persia. Recorded from Sind by Murray. 



262. Chalcides pentadactylus. 



Sphenocephalus ? pentadactylus, Beddome, Madras Journ. Med. Sc. 

 1870, pi. i. 



The description and figure published by Beddome, from a single 

 specimen preserved in the Madras Museum, indicate a Lizard 

 closely allied to the North-African, Arabian, and Syrian G. sepoides, 

 Audouin, with which it is possibly identical. The original de- 

 scription is as follows, the names in square brackets being added by 

 me: 



" The anterior legs minute and fitting into a groove ; fingers 

 five, the third slightly longer than the fourth, first and fifth very 

 small ; posterior legs well formed ; toes five, the fourth longer than 

 the third, the fifth very small ; form slender, four and a quarter 

 inches long, as thick as a goose-quill, two thirds cylindrical, flat, 

 and laterally angled beneath as far as the vent ; the body and tail 

 covered with small smooth lustrous hexagonal scales, with a median 

 row of broader subcaudals ; upper lip covering the mouth ; eyes 

 minute, surrounded by small scales ; no external trace of ears ; 

 nostrils in small single shields let into the posterior side of the 

 rostral, with a small postnasal behind each, and two large shields 

 in the loreal region behind the postnasal and the eye ; rostral 

 square behind, a single pra)frontal narrow and a parallelogram in 

 shape [the united supranasals] ; postfrontal [prsefrontal] single, 

 six-sided ; vertical [frontal] broader behind ; occipitals [parietaJs] 



