40 SCINCUSQ,UINq,UELINEATUS. 



plates and three posterior orbitals, the lower one larger, besides some small scales 

 interposed between them and the eyelids, which are also covered with minute 

 scales; there are four anterior orbital plates, one of which is large, and the 

 superior makes a part of the superciliary ridge; the inferior wall of the orbit is 

 completed by the fifth and sixth superior labial plates. The frontal are pentagonal, 

 a little rounded, and broadest transversely; the centro-frontal is broad and 

 hexagonal, and the anterior frontals are small, round and oblong. The rostral 

 plate is triangular, with its apex upwards, and its basis rounded and .directed 

 downwards. The nasal plates are single on each side, small, and nearly circular 

 in shape. The margin of the upper jaw is covered with eight quadrilateral labial 

 plates, the posterior of which is largest above, and behind these are temporal 

 scales. The nostrils are near the snout, lateral, but open upwards and outwards. 

 The eyes are small, the pupil dark and the iris gray. The opening of the external 

 ear is large and oval, longest vertically. 



The body is elongated, cylindrical, and covered with subhexagonal scales, so 

 rounded and imbricated as to appear semicircular; these scales are arranged in 

 longitudinal and oblique rows. The throat and abdomen are covered with 

 rhomboidal scales, imbricated and rounded posteriorly like those of the back. 

 The vent is transverse, with two large and two small scales in front, and small 

 scales behind. 



The anterior extremities are short and covered with scales, similar to those on 

 the back, and terminate in five distinct slender fingers, covered with scales, and 

 each furnished with a small, delicate, curved nail. The posterior extremities are 

 large, and covered with scales like the anterior, and terminate in five long slender 

 toes, each with a short and curved nail. 



The tail is cylindrical and very long, and covered above with hexagonal scales, 

 a little rounded posteriorly; below it is covered with five rows of similar scales, 

 and all of the same size, for one-third its length, when their place is supplied by a 

 single row of larger plates, hke the subcaudal plates of the boa. 



