ANNIELLID A. 299 
Fam. 10. ANNIELLIDA. 
Aniellidee, Cope, Proc. Ac. Philad, 1864. 
Aniellidee, Boulenger, Ann. §& Mag. N. H. (5) xiv. 1884. 
Tongue villose, smooth and bifid anteriorly*. Tecth large, few, 
fang-like, with short swollen base. Palate toothless. Skull ap- 
proaching the Ophidian type, 2. ¢. lacking the preesphenoidal vacuity 
and consequently the interorbital septum, and the bones which con- 
stitute the brain-case firmly united; no columella cranii, no squa- 
mosal ; postorbital arch ligamentous; pterygoids in contact with 
sphenoid ; an infraorbital fossa; preemaxillary single; nasal and 
frontal divided; parietal single; pre- and postorbital in contact, 
separating the frontal from the border of the orbit. Body vermi- 
form}. yes and ears concealed. Scales soft, cycloid-hexagonal, 
strongly imbricate. 
A single genus, which appears to be a strongly degraded form of 
the Anguide, similarly as the Anelytropide and Dibamide are to 
the Scincide. 
1. ANNIELLA. 
Anniella, Gray, Ann. §& Mag. N. H. (2) x. 1852, p.440; Cope, Proc. 
Ac, Philad. 1864, p. 280; Bocourt, Miss. Sc. Mex., Rept. p. 460, 
California. 
1, Anniella pulchra. 
Anniella pulchra, Gray, 1. c., and Zool, Herald, p, 154, pl. xxviii. ; 
Bocourt, 1, ¢. pl. xxii. &. fig. 2. 
Head much depressed, snout cuneiform; eyes concealed under 
several small scales resembling lids; rostral large, in contact with 
the nasal, separated from the frontal by a pair of prefrontals ; 
frontal large, heptagonal, broader than long, its posterior border 
forming a suture with a nearly equally large interparietal, the 
posterior border of which is emarginate to receive a small occipital ; 
parietais very small; a larger anterior and two smaller posterior 
supraoculars ; nostril pierced in a large nasal resembling an anterior 
labial ; five upper labials, first very small, situated below the nasal, 
on the lower surface of the snout; second in contact with the pra- 
frontal, second with a loreal, third with the oculars, fourth small ; 
mental pentagonal, followed by a pair of large postmentals; six 
lower labials. Scales smooth, hexagonal, twenty-four (or twenty- 
* Resembling strikingly that of Heloderma. 
+ Whether rudiments of the shoulder and hip-girdles exist, is at present 
unknown, 
