E L G A R I A. 205 



is flat, bifurcated at the tip. There is an external auricular aperture, 

 and the eyes are provided with two valvular lids. The tail is either 

 spinose or unarmed, sometimes excessively long, as for instance in the 

 genus Elgaria, as represented on Plates XXII and XXIII, of the ac- 

 companying atlas. 



SYN. Ptt/chopleuri, WiEGM. Herp. Mex. I, 1834, 11. 



Cyclosaures pti/c hopleures, DUM. &, BIBR. Erpet. gen. V, 1839, 336. 



Zonuridae, GRAY, Ann. Nat. Hist. I, 1838, 388; & Catal. Lizz. Brit. Mus. 1845, 45. 



Cordyles, GRAY, Catal. Lizz. Brit. Mus. 1845, 45. 



OBSERV. All the representatives of this family are strictly terres- 

 trial, never making for the water, even temporarily, and keeping on 

 the surface of the soil or in burrows. They belong to the warm climes 

 of both hemispheres. They are inoffensive, without means of attack 

 or defence, seeking after small animals to prey upon, such as feeble 

 molluscs, annelids, and insects. 



GENUS ELGARIA, GRAY. 



GEX. CHAR. Head subpyramidal, covered above with well-developed 

 and smooth plates. Occipitals scale-like. Vertex plate largest. 

 Two pairs of small internasals. An odd prefrontal, and a pair of 

 postfrontals. Dorsal scales disposed upon transverse and, at the 

 same time, longitudinal series, moderately keeled, armless. Abdo- 

 men protected by twelve longitudinal series of subquadrangular and 

 smooth shields. Femoral pores wanting. Limbs weak ; five fin- 

 gers and five toes, slender, unequal, plaited above and below. Tail 

 subcylindrical, slender, tapering, much longer than the body and 

 head together, surrounded with scales like those of the back, but 

 arranged upon verticils. 



.Elyaria, GRAY, Ann. Nat. Hist. I, 1838, 390 ; &, Catal. Lizz. Brit. Mus. 

 1845, 54. 



OBSERV. The odd prefrontal plate is sometimes subdivided into 

 two. The vertex plate is either subpentagonal or subhexagonal, elon- 

 gated, narrower in front than behind, and also occasionally subdivided 

 crosswise posteriorly. Five large supraoculars constitute a curved 

 series, convex towards the vertex plate, with three smaller ones, be- 



52 



