SAURIA. 49 



rous also, and moves with rapidity without the aid of its feet; 

 lives in meadows, and feeds on spiders, snails, &c.(l) 



The southern provinces of France produce a sixth very simi- 

 lar to the preceding, but with eight or nine brown stripes 

 placed at equal distances apart, — Zygnis striata, Fitz. 



We might separate from the rest a species whose carinated 

 and pointed scales are nearly verticillate;(2) Lac. anguina, L. 

 Lac. monodactyla, Lacep., Ann. Mas. 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. 



A small genus, only differing from Seps in the entire absence of fore 

 feet, having the scapulae and clavicles concealed beneath the skin, 

 the hind feet alone being visible. There is but a step from it to 

 Jinguis. 



Some of them have a series of pores before the anus. (3) 

 I dissected one of them brought from New-Holland by the 

 late M. Peron, the Bipkle lepidopode, Lacep., An. du Mus. tom. 

 IV, pi. Iv, which has carinated scales on the back, and a tail 

 twice the length of the body. (4) Of its feet, nothing is exter- 

 nally visible but two small oblong and scaly plates; but by dis- 

 section 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 6ipes, L.; Lacerta bipes, Gm.; Seb. I, Ixxxvi, 3, 

 each of whose feet is terminated by two unequal toes. (5) 



(1) Merrem, on the contrary, had made his genus Seps from this single species. 

 Fitzinger now calls it Ztgmis, in imitation of Oken, and adds to it the Tridadylus 

 dea-esiensis of Per. which is much more nearly allied to the Tetradactylus of the 

 same island. 



(2) It is the genus Moxodacttitts, Merr., or Ciiamjesauha, Fitz. 



(3) They form the genus Ptgopcs, Merr. 



(4) 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. 



(5) It is the genus Bipes, Merr. or Scelotes, Fitz. The Seps gronovien, or 

 monodadyle of Daudin, of which Merrem has made his genus Ptgodacttlus, was 

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

 stricken out as Merrem anticipated. The Seps sexlineata, Harl. &c. Nat. Sc. Phil. 

 IV, pi. xviii, f. 2, is a mere varietv of it. 



Vol. II.— G 



