Sremias. 259 



the ear, or between these two points, rarely the eye, in males, the axil 

 or the shoulder, rarely the elbow or the ear, in females ; foot li to If 

 times as long as the head ; toes rather slender, not or but slightly 

 compressed. Tail If to 2 times as long as head and body in females, 

 2 to 2J times in males. 



Upper head-shields smooth or slightly rugose. Nasals in contact 

 with each other behind the rostral, the suture between them ^ to ^ the 

 length of the frontonasal, which is as long as broad or broader than 

 long ; prefrontals as long as broad or, usually, a little longer, forming 

 a suture in the middle, very rarely separated by a small azygos shield * ; 

 frontal usually shorter than its distance from the end of the snout, 1 J 

 to 2 times as long as broad, narrow behind ; parietals 1^ to If times 

 as long as broad ; interparietal as large as the frontoparietals or a 

 little larger or a little smaller : occipital rarely more than | the length 

 of the interparietal, rarely broader than the ]atter,t often very small.J 

 4 supraoculars, first and fourth small, sometimes broken wp into 

 2 or 3, first more often than not in contact with the frontal ; 5, rarely 

 4, 6 or 7, superciliaries, first, or first and second longest ; a series of 

 granules, rarely incomplete, or one series in front and two behind, 

 between the supraoculars and the superciliaries. 3 nasals, lower in con- 

 tact with the rostral and the first upper labial § ; posterior small and 

 very rarely excluded from the nostril ; anterior loreal usually twice as 

 long as deep, sometimes only 1^ times, exceptionally divided into 2 or 3 

 (1 + 1 or 2 + 1), as long as or shorter than the second, from which it 

 is exceptionally || separated by the prefrontal ; 4, rarely 3 or 6, upper 

 labials anterior to the subocular, which is keeled below the eye, and 

 largely borders the mouth, its lower border much narrower than the 

 upper ; temporal scales small, granular, lower larger ; a narrow 

 tympanic shield ; no auricular denticulation. 



Lower eyelid with a transparent disc formed of two large, usually 

 black-edged scales, one in front of the other, with or without a series 

 of 2 to 5 small ones below them ; the anterior large scale often a 

 little larger than the other. 



5 or, more frequently, 6 pairs of chin-shields, the first three in 

 contact in the middle, the sixth narrow ; 19 to 26 gular scales in a 



* One male from El Kubar. 



t Twice as broad in a female from the Helmand. 



i Separated from the interparietal by a small shield in one male from 

 Mt. Sinai and in one young from Gwadar, by the parietals meeting in the 

 middle in one male from Puli Hatun. 



§ L. G. Andersson (I.e.) mentions a specimen from Tor, Sinaitic Peninsula, in 

 which the lower nasal is in contact with the first and second upper labials. 



II In a single specimen from Mt. Sinai. 



