1881.] MR. W. T. BLANFORD ON PERSIAN REPTILES. 677 



Centrotrachelus LORICATUS. 



Ghorak. (I think this must be the same as a place marked 

 Gurek on St. John's map, 15 miles east of Bushire.) 



Both the two specimens collected are small, the largest barely 

 12 inches long, and the smaller only 6. Though rather darker than 

 the type of C. loricatus, they have none of the olive coloration of 

 C. asmussi. They agree with the former in the more distant rows of 

 tubercles on the back, and in having the keels of the scales beneath 

 the hind feet arranged in transverse, and not in oblique rows. More 

 specimens, however, and especially adults, are requisite in order to 

 show whether these two forms are really separable. 



PSAMMOSAURXJS SCINCUS. 



Konar Takhti (20 miles south-west of Kazrun) and Ghainak (I 

 do not know the latter locality). 



The specimens (three in number) are quite undistingnishable 

 from Egyptian examples in the British Museum. I see no proba- 

 bility of P. caspius being really distinct. 



*SCINCUS CONIROSTRTS, Sp. UOV. 



S. affinis S. officinali, sed capite breviore, magis conico, scutis 

 supra7iasalibus contingentibus atque prcBfrontale a rostrali 

 secernentibus, distinguejidus. 



Tangyak, 7 miles south of Bushire. 



Nearly allied to iS. officinalis, so nearly as to be merely a local 

 race ; but the head is differently shaped, being shorter and more 



Fig. 1. 



Head of Scinctts conirostris. 



conical, the length of the head from the occiput to the end of the 

 nose being nearly equal to the width of the body between the axils 

 of the fore limbs or very little greater. Another distinction, which 

 is constant so far as I can judge from the series of S. officinalis in 

 the Museum, is that in the latter the praefrontnl shield is always 

 in contact with the rostral, whereas in the Persian form the two 

 are separated from each other by the supranasals. The vertical 

 shield is proportionally shorter in S. conirostris. In all other 

 respects the two forms appear to be similar ; and the coloration is 

 identical. 



So far as I am aware there are, besides S. officinalis, three de- 



