PSEUDOPCS. 199 



and very broad. The upper parts are tawny brown, with 

 small black spots on the neck and back, and along each 

 flank a range of blue spots encircled with black ; the upper 

 surface of the hind-paws are reticulated with blackish 

 brown ; the lower regions are white. 



It is by no means certain that this is the Lacerta velox 

 of Pallas as above quoted, but M. Eversmann is of opinion 

 that they are identical. 



It inhabits the Crimea. 



Family CHALCIDES. 



Body generally cylindrical, much prolonged, or serpent- 

 shaped ; feet either slightly developed or entirely absent ; 

 trunk almost always undivided from the head and tail, 

 bearing traces of circular rings, and in most cases with a 

 longitudinal furrow or fold of skin between the belly and 

 the flanks ; head covered with many-sided plates or shields ; 

 teeth not inserted in the jaw-bone, but, as it were, applied 

 to its inner margin ; tongue free, scarcely extensile, wide, 

 furnished with tubercles, notched at its tip, and not 

 sheathed. 



Genus PSEUDOPUS. 



Tongue arrow-shaped, with granular tubercles on the 

 first third of its surface, while those on the other portions 

 are filiform ; teeth on the palate ; intermaxillary teeth 

 conical and simple ; maxillary teeth subcylindrical or tu- 

 bercular ; nostrils lateral, each opening in a single plate ; 

 the opening of the ear very small ; eyelids present ; plates 

 of the head numerous ; body shaped like that of a serpent ; 

 no front feet ; hinder limbs represented by a small, scaly 

 appendage, either simple or slightly bifid, on each side of 



