SAURIANS. 1J 



pointed scales are nearly verticillate*; Lac. anguina, L. ; Lac. mo- 

 nodactyla, Lacep. Ann. Mus. II, lix, 2, and Vosmaer, Monog. 1774, 

 f. 1, under the name of Serpent- Lizard. Its feet are merely small 

 undivided spurs. Inhabits the environs of the Cape of Good Hope. 



Bipes, Lacep. 



The Bipeds are a small genus, only differing from Seps in the entire 

 absence of fore feet, having the scapulse and clavicles concealed beneath 

 the skin, the hind feet alone being visible. There is only a step from it 

 to Unguis. 



Some of them have a series of pores before the anus j. 



I dissected one of them brought from New Holland by the late. 

 M. Peron, the Bipede lepidopode, Lacep. Ann. du Mus. torn. IV, 

 pi. lv, which has carinated scales on the back, and a tail twice the 

 length of the body J. Of its feet, nothing is externally visible but 

 two small oblong and scaly plates; but by dissection we find a 

 femur, a tibia, a fibula, and four metatarsal bones forming toes, but 

 without phalanges. One of its lungs is half the size of the other. 

 It lives in the mud. 



This series of pores is wanting in others. 



A small species, described a long time ago, is found at the Cape, 

 Unguis bipes, L. ; Lacerta bipes, Gm. ; Seb. I, lxxxvi, 3, each of 

 whose feet is terminated by two unequal toes§. 



Brazil produces another, Pygopus cariococca, Spix, xxviii, 2; 

 larger, with undivided feet like those of the lepidopode, Lacep., but 

 more pointed, and with entirely smooth scales. It is greenish, with 

 four longitudinal blackish lines ||. 



Chalcides, Daud. 



The Chalcides are elongated Lizards, like Seps, resembling Serpents ; 

 but the scales, instead of being arranged like tiles, are rectangular, form- 

 ing transverse bands, which do not encroach on each other like those on 

 the tails of ordinary lizards. 



Some of them have a furrow on each side of the trunk, and a still very 

 apparent tympanum. They are allied to Cordylus just as Seps is con- 

 nected with Scincus, and lead in many points to Pseudopus and Ophi- 

 saurus. 



A five-toed species is known, Lac. seps, L., which inhabits the 



* It is the genus Monodactylus, Merr., or Cham^esaura, Fitz. 



f They form the genus Pygopus of Merrem. 



X The fig. of Lacep. is drawn from an individual, the tail of which had been 

 broken off' and reproduced; we are very liable, generally speaking, to be mistaken in 

 the proportionate length of the tail in all this class. 



§ It is the genus Bipes, Merr., or Scelotes, Fitz. The Seps gronovien, or mono- 

 dactyle of Daudin, of which Merrem has made his genus Pygodactylus, was 

 merely a badly preserved specimen of the same, so that this genus must be stricken 

 out, as Merrem suspected would be the case. The Seps sexlineata, Ilarl., &c. Nat. 

 Sc. Phil. IV, pi. xviii, f. 2, is a mere variety of it. 



|| The Pyg. slriatus, Spix, XXVIII, 1, appears to me to be the young of the 

 same species. 



