212 APPENDIX F. REPTILES. 



6. Lygosoma lateralis, Dum. and B. 



Spec. char. — Upper part of head and body chestnut-brown ; a black 

 lateral band extending from the snout across the eye to a considerable 

 distance along the tail. Flanks grayish -brown, with longitudinal indis 

 tiuct, darker, interrupted vittas. Abdomen yellowish, and tail beneath 

 bluish; circumference of scales mottled with gray. Tail longer than 

 the body. Limbs very small. 



Stn. — Scincus lateralis, Say, in Long's Exp. Eock. Mts. IT, 1823, 

 324.— Harl. Jour. Acad. Nat. Sc, V, 1827, 221, and VI, 1829, 

 12.— Holbr. N. Amer. Herp., first ed., I, 1836, 71. PL viii. 



Scincus unicolor, Harl. Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad., V., i, 1825, 156. 



Tiliqua lateralis, Gray, Syn. Kept., in Griff. Anim. Kingd., Cuv. IX, 



1831, 70. 

 Lygosoma lateralis, Dum. and B., Erp. gen. V, 1839, 719. Holb. 

 N. Amer. Herp, second ed., II, 1842, 133. PI. xix. 



This small and graceful species appears to be spftad over a large por- 

 tion of the United States. It is always met with running on the sur- 

 face of the ground in forests, among dead leaves, never ascending either 

 trees or shrubs like many other lizards. 



The body is sub-quadrangular, the head continuous with it, and, like 

 it, flattened above. The tail is sub-circular, tapering into a point. The 

 plates of the head correspond with the descriptions which we have 

 before us, except that the frontonasals are not contiguous, but separated 

 by a small odd plate directly in advance of the vertical (sometimes 

 called frontal.) But this peculiarity of structure is not indicative of any 

 specific difference. 



The auditive apertures are large, circular, and their margin simple. 

 The fore-legs, when extended forward, reach the eye. The hind-legs are 

 a little longer and stouter than the fore-legs. The scales are perfectly 

 smooth, uniform above and below, and disposed in thirty longitudinal 

 rows around the body. The two middle preanal scutellie considerably 

 larger. 



One specimen was procured near the mouth of Cache creek, on the 

 16th of May. 



