156 CLASS REPTILIA. 



length with the tail, without any swelling at the 

 occiput, and without crest or gular appendage, co- 

 vered with uniform shining scales, arranged like tiles, 

 or like those of the carps. Some of them have a 

 spindle form, others almost cylindrical, and more or 

 less elongated, resemble serpents, and especially some 

 of the angues with which they have also many inter- 

 nal relations, and which they connect with the family 

 of the iguanas by an uninterrupted series of shades ; 

 as to the rest, their tongue is fleshy, triflingly exten- 

 sible and emarginated, and their jaws are furnished 

 all round with small and crowded teeth ; in the anus, 

 penis, eye and ear, they resemble, more or less, the 

 iguanas and lizards. Their feet have all the toes 

 free and unguiculated. 



Certain species have some teeth in the palate, 

 and a denticulation on the anterior edge of the 

 tympanum. 



We should distinguish in the number, in con- 

 sequence of its trenchant and somewhat raised 

 muzzle,* 



Lac. Scincus, Lin. ; Scincus Officinalis^ Shn. ; El. 

 Adda of the Arabs, Lacep. I. xxiii. ; Bruce. Abyss, 

 pi. 39 ; Egypt. Kept. KSupp. pi. 2, f. 8. 



Six or eight inches long ; the tail shorter than the 

 body. The latter is of a silvery yellowish colour, 

 with some transverse blackish bands. It lives in 



* It is of this species only that M. Fitzinger composes his genus Scincus. 

 The others form his genus Maboina. 



