AXB BATKACHIANS OF BAKBART. 137 



pTBefrontals and frontoparietals present. Limbs well developed, pen tadactyle ; digits 

 flattened, serrated laterally. 

 Two species in Barbary. 



1. Scixcus FASCI.VTUS, Peters, 1864. 



Head oval, pyramidal, with broad, obtusely truncated snout ; nostril lateral ; loreal 

 region rounded ; eye large ; ear-opening large, almost entirely covered by two very 

 large scales. Rostral moderately large, separated from the frontonasal by the supra- 

 nasals ; six supraoculars ; parietals as long as interparietal. Body cyelotetragonal, the 

 sides of the belly rounded. 2-4 or 26 scales round the middle of the body ; dors^al 

 scales striated, the two vertebral series largest, at least twice as large as the ventrals ; 

 a double series oi large transverse nuchals. Digits feebly depressed, feebly denticulated 

 laterally. Yellowish or orange above, with seven transverse black bands, of which the 

 first is on the nape, the second and third on the back, and the fourth on the sacrum. 



From snout to vent 147 millim., tail 77, 



The type specimen, from Geryville, which I have seen in the Berlin ?\luseum, is 

 described in detail by Peters. The following notes were taken by M. Lataste from his 

 Tunisian specimen : 



Three praefrontals, middle one trapezoid and in contact with the truncate posterior 

 border of the frontonasal ; five pairs of nuchals ; two superposed anterior loreals, the 

 lower deeper but shorter than the upper ; parietals considerably shorter than the 

 frontal ; nine upper labials on each side, eighth largest, fifth and sixth under the eye ; 

 second and third postmentals divided into two; the two auricular scales much larger 

 than the temporal scales immediately preceding them. 2G rows of scales. 



millim. 



From snout to vent 146 



From snout to ear 32 



Width of head 26 



This is a very rare Lizard ; only four specimens are actually kno\\ n. The type 

 specimen noticed by Strauch under Scincus officinalis is from GeryviUe, in the Sahara 

 of the Province of Oran ; one specimen was picked up, in a mummified condition, in 

 the plain of Arad, south of Cabes, near Sidi-Guenao, by M. Lataste, and is now preserved 

 in the Paris Museum ; a third specimen, from Khartoum, is in the St. Petersburg 

 Museum, as well as the fourth, which is without locality, and served as the type of 

 Strauch's Cyclodus Irandti in 1866. 



2. Scincus officinalis, Laurenti, 1768. 



Snout cuneiform, truncate, strongly projecting ; nostril pierced in the canthus 

 rostrahs ; loreal region concave ; eye very small ; ear-opening distinguishable, covered 



