230 S A U R I A. 



quadraginta series longitudinales dispositis. Scuto praefrontali rhom- 

 hiformi. Squamarum praeanalium externa serie reliquis 7najore. 

 Supra spadiceo. Yitta nigra ah oculo usque ad caudae hasim extensa ; 

 superne may^gine fuliginoso ornata, a regione superciliari ad tertiam 

 anterioi'em caudae partem extendente ; infer ne linea flava ah axillam 

 ad inguen percuri^ente, Inferiore lateris parte lidea, nigro-punctata. 

 Gala alhescente ; ahdomine pallide fusco, unicolori. 



Spec. Char. — Body and head slender and depressed. Tail subconical 

 posteriorly. Forty-three to forty-five longitudinal series of scales. 

 Prefrontal plate lozenge-shaped. External row of preanal scales 

 larger than the rest. Back chestnut-brown. A fuliginous line 

 extending from the supraciliary region to the anterior third of the 

 tail. A black streak from the eye to the base of the tail. A yellow 

 line from the axilla to the groin. Lower portion of the flanks yellow, 

 speckled with black. Throat whitish. Abdomen light brown, uni- 

 color. 



Syn. — Etiprepis venustits, Grd. in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. November, 1857. 

 Chionia venusta, Grd. MSS. 



Obsery. — This species is very closely allied to E. deJalandii, E. hel- 

 cJieri, and E. gravenliorsti, with which it might constitute a generic 

 group, characterized by the peculiar conformation of some of the 

 cephalic plates. Whenever such a classification should be deemed 

 advisable, there are two names already framed and claiming admit- 

 tance : Racliites is the first on the list, and, if not admissible, Chionia 

 will come next.* 



Our E. venustus difiers from E. deJalandii by the form of the prefron- 

 tal (internasal) plate, which is lozenge-shaped, instead of hemidiscoid, 

 the number of longitudinal series of scales, which are forty-three or 

 forty-five, instead of forty-seven or forty-nine, and by the preanal scales, 

 the exterior row being larger than the preceding rows, and which are 

 all equal in E. delalandii, 



Descr. — The head and body are very much" depressed ; the latter 

 broader than deep, whilst the former is broad across the occipital 



* John Edward Gray, in the Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum, has 

 already pointed out this group under the appellation of Chionmiajhut as it seems not as 

 a genus or a subgenus. 



