1865.) DR. J, E. GRAY ON THE AMPHISBENIANS. 451 
2—2, separated by acentral shield. Tail cylindrical, rather conical 
at the tip. 
In spirits the skin is loose and inclined to form a fin-like fold, 
sometimes on one and sometimes on another part of the body, with 
a central longitudinal ventral groove, without any appearance of a 
lateral line. 
BAIKIA AFRICANA. 
Hab. West Africa (Dr. Balfour Baikie). B.M. 
Fig. 4. Fig. 3. 
Baikia africana. 
Fam. 4. LEPIDOSTERNID. 
Lepidosternide, Gray, Cat. Tortoises, &c., B. M. 73, 1844. 
Head oblong, depressed, with a short horizontal keel in front; 
nostrils in shields, under the keel of the rostral shield ; teeth conical, 
on the inner side of the maxilla. Body cylindrical, covered with 
rings of oblong four-sided shields ; the sternum with a disk formed 
of differently shaped shields ; preanal pores distinct. 
Tribe 1. LeprpostrerninA. Head conical, covered with symme- 
trical polygonal shields; the pectoral disk covered with many 
polygonal shields placed in oblique lines ; the dorsal and lateral 
lines well marked, broad, smooth, formed by the overlapping 
of the narrow ends of the sections of the rings. America, 
LEPIDOSTERNON. 
Head conical, covered with three pairs of symmetrical and a ver- 
tebral shield; rostral shield large, broad, rounded in front; the 
pectoral shield formed of regular, nearly equal, symmetrical rhombic 
or six-sided shields, sometimes united into long shields which are 
not symmetrical. 
* Sternal plate of central series united into elongated bands. 
Lepidosternon. 
1, LEPIDOSTERNON MICROCEPHALUM, Wagler, Serp. Bras. 70, 
t. 26; Miller, Tiedem. Zeitsch. 1832, iv. t. 22. f.4; Dum. et Bibr. 
Erp. Gén. vy. 505; Gray, Cat. Tortoises, &c., B. M. 73, 
