NOTICE OF SOME NEW AND RARE SPECIES OF SCINCIDZ. 81 
Dimensions.—Length of head, nine lines; greatest breadth, six; length of body to vent 
two inches, ten lines; of tail, three inches, eight lines. Total length, seven inches, three 
lines. Circumference, one inch, ten lines. 
General Remarks.—Of the thirteen species of Euprepes described by Duméril and Bibron, 
none are mentioned as found in 8. America. They are represented as existing in Africa, 
Heypt, Abyssinia, the Seychelles, N. Guinea, and various parts of the H. Indies and Indian 
Archipelago. Of the thirteen species, but two (H. Sebe and H. Ernesti) are without a 
transparent eyelid. The plates upon the head in the different species of Huprepes often — 
vary considerably. Thus, in Harlani, the first frenal is more slender than in striata; 
the fronto-nasals are nearer together, the interparietal is longer. The internasal in Su- 
rinamensis is broader, the fronto-nasals more quadrate, the frontal longer, the interparietal 
broader, and more urceolate, the fronto-nasal wider apart than in dissimilis, in which the 
fronto-nasals are closely in contact, separating the frontal from the internasal by an inter- 
val of halfa line. In Surinamensis the frontal and internasal are in contact; the supra- 
nasals in Harlani and striata are unusually broad anteriorly; and in Blandingii, the fifth 
superior labial is remarkable for its quadrangular form and great length. Differences of 
this kind are in all probability constant with few exceptions, and should always be care- 
fully represented by the artist, as the surest mode of distinguishing the species, and of 
obviating, in a great degree, the necessity for long and circumstantial descriptions. We 
hope the time is not far distant, when there shall be sufficient encouragement for superior 
artists to an exclusive devotion to the drawing of objects of natural history, for there is no 
doubt talent in abundance, but the demand for it has not been fully manifested. 
SUB. GEN. PLESTIODON. D. AND B. 
Characters.—Nostrils opening in the middle, or nearly in the middle of the nasal plate ; 
two supero-nasals; palate with a large median fissure, broader at its anterior extremity ; 
pterygoid teeth; scales smooth. 
PLESTIODON SINENSE? D. AND B. 
Characters.—Colour, olive above, with four more or less mterrupted narrow dark-co- 
loured bands upon the back and tail; scales of back and tail edged with yellow; twenty- 
four rows of scales. 
Description.—Head cruciform, slightly swollen at the temples; nostrils lateral, opening 
in a single plate, two supero-nasals, broad, contiguous, an internasal; quadrangular, pos- 
terior angle acute, enclosed by the fronto-nasals; fronto-nasals in contact; in one of the 
specimens the fronto-nasal and internasal are fused into one plate; a frontal, hexagonal, 
broader in front; two fronto-parietals; an interparietal; two parietals; no occipital; a 
freno-nasal; a large and broad frenal; two freno-orbitar plates; seven superior labials; 
vou. x1.—I1] 
