82 NOTICE OF SOME NEW AND RARE SPECIES OF SCINCIDA. 
auricular openings pyriform, the broadest end above; there are four small scales upon the 
anterior border; third and fourth fingers of equal length; body robust; scales hexagonal; 
twenty-four rows; tail long and tapering, robust, cyclo-tetragonal at base; posterior ex- 
tremities much stouter than anterior; second toe much the longest, with fourteen distinct 
transverse scales beneath; palms of anterior and soles of posterior extremities tubercu- 
lated; six pre-anal scales, the two middle ones quite large. Colowr.—Olive above, with 
four dark-coloured, and more or less interrupted bands upon the back and tail; the black 
spots constituting narrow bands, which are not very distinct, occupy only the posterior half 
of each scale; in some specimens they are much larger than in others; posterior part of 
scales upon sides marked with black; edges yellow. Pterygoid teeth. 
Dimensions.—Length of head ten lines; greatest breadth six and a-half lines; length of 
neck and body to vent, three inches; (Fr.) of tail, four inches, five lines; total length, 
eight inches, three lines; circumference of body, two inches, two lines; of tail at base, one 
inch, seven lines; another specimen measured nine inches in length; and the circumfe- 
rence of the apparently older one was two inches, eight lines. 
Habitat—Ningpo, China. Five specimens in Mus. Acad. N. S., presented by B. H. 
M‘Cartee, M. D. ; 
General Remarks.——The animal above described is very probably the Plestiodon Si- 
nense, (Duméril and Bibron,) from the neighbourhood of Canton, their description of the 
scales corresponding with it, being olive-coloured bordered with yellow; but they make 
no mention of the four dotted lines along the back; which, however, are shown in Gray’s 
figure. (Hardwicke—lIllustrations of Indian Zoology 
Tiliqua rubriventris,) and they 
give one more row of scales, viz.;—twenty-five. We have a specimen with three white 
lines down the back, bordered with black, probably the young of the above, and which is, 
perhaps, identical with Plesticdon pulchrum, Dum. & Bib. An Tiliqua trivittatus? Gray. 
We have carefully examined the Herpetology of Duméril and Bibron, the most com- 
plete and philosophical that has yet been published upon the Reptiles, and the Catalogue 
of the Reptiles of the British Museum, by Mr. Gray, and do not find any species of Scinks 
corresponding with those above described as new. 
Among the Scincide in the collection of the Academy are fourteen specimens of Able- 
pharus Peronii, belonging to the group of Scincide Ophiopthalmide of Duméril and 
Bibron; the greater number presented by Dr. Townsend; the predominating colour in 
most of these specimens is brown, mingled with green, with the lateral rays bordered with 
black, as described by Duméril and Bibron. In some of the specimens, however, the pre- 
dominating colour is brownish above, with two median rows of black spots. Duméril and 
Bibron observe that this species has a very wide range, being found, according to them, in 
New Holland, Tahiti, Java, the Isle of France, the Morea, and Peru. 
