80 



and body. Its colouration is striking; almost black above with a dorso-latei^al 

 and lateral , series of golden elongated spots ; throat golden reticulated with 

 bluish-grey; a large black area on chest, continuing in a point almost to the 

 vent, and produced along the under-surfaces of the arms. The female is 

 beautifully variegated, with a light salmon-pink on dark brown, with series of 

 dorso-lateral and lateral spots, or broken stripes as in the male, but continuing 

 in bright longitudinal bands down the tail ; throat marbled with grey, the rest 

 of the lower surfaces immaculate cream colour. [The species is very abundant 

 on Pearson Island, but has been seen on no other islands. — F. W. J-] 



SCINCIDAE. 



5. Egernia zvhitii. Lacep., Ann. Mus. Paris, iv., 1804, p. 192; Boulenger, 

 op. ,c., vol. iii., p. 135; Zietz, op. c, p. 203. 



Three specimens from Greenly Island and one from Franklin Island. 



All are handsomely marked, and those from Greenly Island had evidently 

 the under-surfaces brick-red in life, with blue throats marbled with black. The 

 head-shields are extremely variable, particularly the frontal, which may be in 

 contact with the frontonasal, or widely separated from it by the internasals. 



The British Museum has a specimen from Kangaroo Island, the nearest 

 locality to those recorded above. The species has a very wide distribution. 



6. Lygosoma (Liolepisma) cntrecasicaiixii. Dum. and Bibr., Erp. Gen., v., 

 1839, p. 717; Boulenger, op. c, p. 276; Zeitz, op. c, p. 203. 



One specimen from Pearson Island. 



This charming skink was until recently only known from Tasmania. The 

 British Museum has received no specimens since 1887, when the Catalogue was 

 published. 



The new specimen is particularly well marked, being olive, with a black 

 vertebral streak flanked on each side by a series of round black spots. It has 

 also a light-spotted dark dorso-lateral band edged by a light and a dark lateral 

 streak; The tail is annulated with small olive and black ocelli ; the lips and 

 lower parts are turquoise-blue. The dorsal scales are tricarinate. 



7. Lygosoma (Homolepida) wood-jonesii, n. sp. 



Material. — An adult female and two half-grown specimens. 



Locality. — St. Francis Island. 



Diagnosis. — Allied to the Western Australian L. gastrostigma, Blgr.,W from 

 which it differs chiefly in having smaller eye and ear openings, a shorter inter- 

 parietal shield, more widely expanded median subcaudals, 28 instead of 26 rows 

 of scales, and in colouration. 



Description. — Body very elongate; the distance between snout-tip and fore 

 limb goes twice and two-thirds in the distance between axilla and groin in the 

 adult, just over twice in the half -grown specimens. Tail about as long as head 

 and body. 



Snout moderate ; obtusely pointed. Eye small, about as deep as the sixth 

 upper labial ; lower eyelid scaly. Nostril pierced in a single, nasal which forms 

 a suture with its fellow ; a vertical groove behind the nostril, as in L. 

 branchiale and L. gastrostigma. Ear opening very small, with one lobe 

 anteriorly. Frontonasal broader than long, forming a suture with the frontal; 

 praefrontals separated from each other, sometimes widely; frontal two-thirds 

 broad as long, longer than its distance from the snout-tip, in contact with first 

 and second supraoculars ; frontoparietals two-thirds as long as interparietal, 

 which separates the parietals. Loreals small, square ; 2 praeoculars, 3 supra- 

 oculars; 6 superciliaries ; 2 series of suboculars (the inner of minute scales), 



(t) Boulenger, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1898, p. 222, pi. Ivii. 



