EREMIAS CAPENSIS. 



on its surface near its centre ; occipital plate hemispherical, the convexity 

 forwards ; parietal plates indistinctly five sided, the sides very unequal in 

 length, and the two forming the outline anteriorly meet in front at an acute 

 angle ; palpebral plates in some specimens almost completely surrounded with 

 small granular scales; freno-nasal plate oblong and quadrangular; freno-ocular 

 irregularly triangular, the anterior angle truncated ; lower eyelid externally 

 covered with small semi-pellucid plates, vide Plate XLVIII. Figs. 7 and 7a; 

 upper lip anterior to large suborbital plate with seven plates, behind it five, 

 small and scale-like ; of lower lip eight or nine besides the chin plate. Ear- 

 opening large, vertically subovate, and its edges even and covered with small 

 granular scales. Scales of back and upper part of sides small, subcircular, 

 regularly arranged in transverse rows, and the rows separated from each 

 other by the invervention of minute granular scales ; the under surface of the 

 neck coated with small fiat subovate scales, imbricate, and arranged in irre- 

 gular transverse rows ; hinder edge of antepectoral fold formed of eight 

 quadrangular plates, the two middle ones the largest ; pectoral and ventral 

 plates quadrangular in transverse rows, sixteen plates in the longest ventral 

 row ; preanal plates in several transverse rows, two in the hindermost row, 

 and about five in each of the two in front of it ; femoral pores nine to eleven, 

 their openings small, directed outwards and backwards ; scales of upper and 

 lateral parts of tail carinated ; plates of under parts of tail short and 

 quadrangular. The fore legs towards body covered anteriorly with a row of 

 large plates, elsewhere with small subtriangular flat imbricate scales ; hinder 

 legs anteriorly towards body, and inferiorly towards toes, with plates, else- 

 where with small scales. When the anterior extremities are extended along 

 the side of the neck, the longest toe reaches to about a line beyond the point 

 of the nose ; and when the hinder are laid along the sides, the longest toe 

 reaches exactly to the opening of the ear. 



Length from point of nose to vent 2 inches 3 lines ; length of the tail 4 inches 9 lines. 



Inhabits the arid Karoo flats within the Cape Colony, as well as ''lose of the districts imme- 

 diately beyond it. It is very agile, extremely watchful, and, when frightened, conceals itself 

 under loose stones, decayed wood, or any other material beneath which it can creep. This 

 species is readily to be distinguished from Eremias BurchelUi, by its having the interstices 

 between the rows of the larger scales of the back studded with minute granular scales; by the 

 nasal plates having the anterior extremity of the naso-rostral introduced between them, and by 

 the palpebral plates being, to a greater extent, encircled by small granular scales. The plates 

 of the lower eyelid are also much less numerous, and, instead of being irregularly scattered, are 

 arranged in two longitudinal rows. 



