SCINCUS OFFICINALIS. 205 
Scincus officinalis, Laur. (Plate XXVII.) 
El Adda, Bruce, Travels to Discover Sources of Nile, 1790, App. pp. 193-198, pi. 2. fig. 2. 
Lacerta scincus, Hasselq. Act. Soc. Reg. Sc. Upsal. 1751, pp. 30-33. 
Lacerta stincus, Hasselq. & Linn. Iter Paleest. 1757, p. 309; Linn. Syst. Nat. 12th ed. 1766, p. 365. 
Scincus officinalis, Laurenti, Syn. Kept. 1768, p. 55; Schneider, Hist. Amph. ii. 1801, p. 174; 
part., Daudin, Hist. Eept. iv. 1802, p. 228: Merr. Syst. Amph. 1820, p. 73; Fitz. Neue 
Class. Rept. 1826, p. 52; Aud. Descr. de PEgypte, Hist. Nat. i. ?1829, p. 178, Suppl. pi. 2. 
figs. 8. r to 8. 3 ; Cuvier, Reg. An. nouv. ed. ii. 1829, p. 62 ; Gray, Syn. Griffith's An. King, ix. 
1831, p. 67 ; Brandt u. Ratzeburg, Med. Zool. 1827-34, p. 166; Wiegm. Arch. f. Nat. 1837, 
p. 127; Dum. & Bibr. v. 1839, p. 564; Duvernoy, Cuv. Reg. An., Rept. pi. xxii. fig. 1; 
Gray, Cat. Liz. B. M. 1845, p. 74; Riippell, Mus. Senck. iii. 1845, p. 304; Gervais, Ann. Sc. 
Nat. (3) x. 1848, p. 204; Gravenh. Nov. Acta Ac. Leop.-Carol. xxiii. 1, 1851, p. 313, pl.xxxi. ; 
Tristram, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 475 ; part., Strauch, Mem. Ac. St. Petersb. (vii. ser.) iv. 
no. 7, 1862, p. 41 ; Boettger, Ber. Senck. nat. Ges. 1879-80, p. 183 ; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 
1880, p. 308; Blgr. Cat. Liz. B. M. iii. 1887, p. 391 ; Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1891, p. 137; 
Pfeffer, Jahrb. Hamb. Wissensch. Anst. vi. 1889, p. 8; op. cit. x. 1893, p. 7; Anderson, Proc. 
Zool. Soc. 1892, p. 16; Herpet. Arabia & Egypt, 1896, p. 105; K6nig, Verh. (S.B.) nat. Ver. 
Bonn, 1892, p. 21 ; Olivier, Mem. Soc. Zool. France, vii. 1894, p. 114; Werner, Verh. zool.- 
bot. Ges. Wien, 1895, xliv. p. 83; Francaviglia, Boll. Soc. Rom. Stud. Zool. v. fasc. i. & ii. 
1896, p. 44. 
Lacerta edda, DonndorfF, Zool. Beytr. 1798, p. 134. 
1 J, 5 ? , and 3 juv. Sandy desert, Pyramids of Gizeh. 
6. Sandy desert, Pyramids of Gizeh. 
Snout rather long and wedge-shaped ; eye small ; ear a short way behind the angle 
of the mouth, small and protected by two or three scales with fringed margins ; nostril 
placed on the canthus rostralis, which is rounded off into the concave loreal region; a 
postnasal ; seven upper labials ; rostral large and in contact by a fine point with the 
frontonasal, which is hexagonal ; frontal slightly contracted antero-posteriorly and in 
contact with the second and third supraoculars, of which there are six ; parietals small, 
shorter than the interparietal, with four or five nuchals behind them. Twenty-six to 
twenty-eight scales, rarely thirty, round the body, perfectly smooth, those on the middle 
of the back slightly larger than the largest scales on the under surface. Limbs short 
and stout; the digits strongly fringed; ungual phalanges with large scutes; claws 
rather narrow and long. Tail considerably shorter than the body and head, thick and 
cylindrical at its base, but more or less laterally compressed towards its tip. 
General colour pale but rich yellowish, with usually ten brown or pale yellowish- 
brown broad cross-bars from the occiput to the sacral region, with a varying number 
continued on to the tail. Each dorsal scale with two or three short, white, longitudinal 
streaks or shafts. Under surface yellowish white. In the young there are seemingly 
