xii SCINCIDAE 563 



'also occurs in South-Western Asia. The lower eyelid has a 

 transparent disc. The body is much elongated, and is covered 

 with smooth shiny scales. The limbs are very short, or reduced 

 to mere vestiges. 



Ch. ocellatus, of the Southern Mediterranean countries, oc- 

 curring also in Malta and Sardinia, reaches about 10 inches in 

 length. The snout is conical, the ear-opening a small slit or 

 hole. The limbs have five fingers and toes. The under parts 

 are uniform silvery white, but the colour of the upper parts is 

 very variable, mostly olive brown with black spots and irregular 

 cross-bars, or with dark and light spots ; sometimes uniform 

 bronzy brown with a light upper and a black lateral band. 

 This Skink seems to have no fixed abode, but digs itself into the 

 sand wherever it wants to hide. The skin is not shed in flakes, 

 but, as in most Skinks, it peels off by a process of gradual 

 desquamation. Fischer's specimens paired towards the end of 

 December. The gestation lasted 56 days, when nine young 

 were born, which measured about 75 mm. or 3 inches; when 

 three weeks old they had increased to nearly double this length. 



Ch. lineatus, of Spain and Portugal, and of the South of 

 France, like Ch. tridactylus of Italy and North-West Africa, has 

 only three fingers and toes. The fore-limbs are only about one 

 quarter of an inch in length in large specimens of 10 inches 

 total length ; the hind-limbs are a little longer. The general 

 colour is bronzy olive or brown above, in the former species with 

 nine or eleven darker longitudinal streaks ; uniform, and with an 

 even number of streaks in the latter species. Ch. ledriagae, of 

 Spain and Portugal, has mostly five fingers and toes, and the 

 limbs are relatively longer in this smaller species ; but it is a 

 question if these and other species of this genus are not to a 

 great extent simply individual variations, since the reduction of 

 the limbs and toes seems to be a very recent feature. Ch. 

 guentheri, of Palestine, otherwise in every respect like Ch. 

 tridactylus, but reaching a length of more than 14 inches, 

 has the limbs reduced to tiny conical stumps without a trace of 

 separate digits. 



I have caught Seps accidentally under stones or pieces of 

 bark in sandy districts. On the western coast of Galicia and 

 Portugal, close to the sea, they frequent the gorse-bushes, on 

 which they can be seen basking, provided they are approached 



