394 Mr. Bell on a neiu Genus of Scincidce. 



several other new species of Reptilia, which he had received from the 

 Swan River. 



The head of this little animal is rather pointed, the upper jaw project- 

 ing a little beyond the under; the teeth are minute, simple, and 

 numerous; the nostrils nearly round; the eyes, covered by a transparent 

 cuticular plate, are destitute of eyelids, and surrounded by a circle of 

 minute scales ; the ears, as in the Anguidce, are wholly concealed by the 

 scaly integument. The body is slender, continuous from the head, and of 

 nearly the same size to the commencement of the tail ; it is covered by 

 semicircular scales, which are perfectly smooth, and have entire margins. 

 The fore legs are very distant from the hinder, extremely small, and fur- 

 nished with but two minute toes, of which the inner is the longer ; the 

 hinder legs are about twice the length of the anterior, and have three 

 toes, of which the outer is the longest, and the inner the shortest. The 

 tail is as long as the head and body, slender and tapering. The anus is 

 simple and protected by two large polished scales. There are neither 

 femoral nor pree-anal pores. The general colour is a light metallic 

 green, paler beneath ; the head is spotted with blackish brown, and there 

 are a pair of narrow black dorsal lines extending from the neck to the 

 end of the tail, and a pair of broader lateral ones, of the same colour. 



In. Lin. 

 Total length 3 8 



Length of the head . • 



■ body . , 



tail . . . 



fore foot . 



hinder foot 



3 



1 6 



1 9 



2 



4 



2 



Diameter of the body 

 The foregoing description will at once shew that whilst this little animal 

 ao^rees with the rest of the family of ScincidcB in all its general characters 

 of form and structure, and in the arrangement of its scales, it possesses 

 some very interesting peculiarities which at once distinguish it from 

 every other genus. It agrees with the genera Gymnophthalmus (Mer- 

 rem), axiAJblepharis (Fitzinger) in the absence of eyelids ; but it differs 

 from both of these in the number of toes; the former having 4 — 5, the 



