'960 MR. A. loveridge: notes on 



Two females from Mtali's had each three Avell-advanced 

 embryos on 9.x. 22, and two otliers from Sha,nwa, taken on 

 20.x, 22, liad in one case three young very near birth, and in 

 the otlier, three, in an early stage. It is curious that the 

 number of young produced shouhl be so much less than those 

 recorded in my last paper. There were four embryos in a very 

 early stage in an Mbala skink on 27. ii. 23. 



Sixteen stomachs were examined, and in every case were found 

 to contain termites, and in only one was any other food present 

 so far as I coqld see, and that appeared to be the limb of a 

 spider. 



Minute nematodes in the stomach have been identified as 

 Fhysaloptera sp. indet. as $ $ only. 



Mabuia onsTi Wern. 



Worn. Mitt. Nat. Mus. Ilamb. xxx. 1913, p. 43. 



Two specimens from Kisumu, Kenya Colony. About a mile 

 south of Port Florence, along the lake shore, these skinks are 

 quite common, but a[)parently localized and confined to the rocks 

 near the shore. Though structurally so similar to M. striata, they 

 iire strikingly diflerent in coloi-ation, being by far the liandsomest 

 East African skiidc I have yet met with. Unfortunately I 

 made no notes on the exact colour at the time, and nothing is 

 left of it in the preserved specimens. Speaking from memory 

 however, only the anterior portion of the body in the adults was 

 suffused with bright orange ; the five longitudinal bands are 

 bright bine both in the adult and in the young. 



In one specimen the parietals aie in contact behind the 

 interparietal, in the other this is not the case. The fronto- 

 parietals are not smaller than the interparietal as in M. striata. 

 There are five large sharply-pointed, and one rounded lobule, 

 anterior to the ear-opening. 36 scales round mid-body. 



It may be worthy of note that several M. striata were taken 

 at the same spot, but on tree-trunks, whilst j\[. obsti is obviously 

 a rock-skink and is the most difficult to catch of any lizard. I 

 spent a whole day trying to get some, and finally got these two 

 specimens from a local native. 



M. ohsti was described from Kwa Mtoro, which lies between 

 Dodoma andKondoa Irangi in Tanganyika Territory, so that this 

 record extends its known range considei-ably. I also saw it on 

 rocks a mile west of Igulwe Stn. One was seen at Kidai, five 

 at Pwaga, and two at Itende, but they successfully evaded 

 strenuous attempts at capture. 



Mabuia striata Peters. 



Blgr. Cat. Liz. iii. 1887, p. 204. 



This familial- species is known to the Wanyatnru as Mwin- 

 yansio, to the Wanyiramba as Tuni, and the Swahili as Mjusi 

 salama. 



