030 SAURIA. 



quadraginta series longitudinales dispositis. Scuto praefrontali rhom- 

 biformi. Squamarum praeanalium externa serie reliquis mojore. 

 Supra spadiceo. Vitta nigra ah oculo usque ad caudae basim extensa ; 

 superne margine fuliginoso ornata, a regione superciliari ad tertiam 

 anteriorem caudae partem extendente ; inferne linea flava ab axillnm 

 ad inguen percur -rente. Inferiore lateris parte Iwtea, niyropunctata. 

 Gala albescente ; abdomine pallide fmco, unicolori. 



SPEC. CHAR. Body and head slender and depressed. Tail subconical 

 posteriorly. Forty-three to forty-five longitudinal series of scales. 

 Prefrontal plate lozenge-shaped. External row of preanal scales 

 larger than the rest. Back chestnut-brown. A fuliginous line 

 extending from the supraciliary region to the anterior third of the 

 tail. A black streak from the eye to the base of the tail. A yellow 

 line from the axilla to the groin. Lower portion of the flanks yellow, 

 speckled with black. Throat whitish. Abdomen light brown, uni- 

 color. 



SYN. Euprepis venustus, GRD. in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. November, 1857. 

 Chionia venusta, GKD. MSS. 



OBSERV. This species is very closely allied to E. delalandii, E. bel- 

 cJieri, and E. gravenliorsti, with which it might constitute a generic 

 group, characterized by the peculiar conformation of some of the 

 cephalic plates. Whenever such a classification should be deemed 

 advisable, there are two names already framed and claiming admit- 

 tance : Bacliites is the first on the list, and, if not admissible, Chionia 

 will come next.* 



Our E. venustus differs from E. delalandii by the form of the prefron- 

 tal (internasal) plate, which is lozenge-shaped, instead of hemidiscoid, 

 the number of longitudinal series of scales, which are forty-three or 

 forty-five, instead of forty-seven or forty-nine, and by the preanal scales, 

 the exterior row being larger than the preceding rows, and which are 

 all equal in E. delalandii. 



DESCR. The head and body are very much" depressed ; the latter 

 broader than deep, whilst the former is broad across the occipital 



* John Edward Gray, in the Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum, has 

 already pointed out this group under the appellation of Chioninia, but as it seems not as 

 a genus or a subgenus. 





