Zoology.] NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. [Reptiles. 



edge ; anterior limb all yellowish, posterior limb yellowish below, closely freckled 

 with brown above. Total length, 7f inches, of which the tail is one-half. Length 

 of gape, 4 lines ; greatest width of head, 3J lines ; length of anterior limb, 2 lines, 

 of posterior limb, 6 lines. 



This is one of several most interesting little Lizards resembling 

 Snakes "so completely in external appearance as to deceive the 

 popular observers, who frequently send me the more common 

 kinds with the enquiry as to whether they are poisonous Snakes or 

 not. Like even the most snake-like Lizards the jaws in this are 

 not dilatable as those of all Snakes are, and it has distinct, though 

 very small, external ears, looking like impressed pores, which no 

 Snakes have. No Snakes have movable eyelids, while they are 

 not only present in this little creature, but exhibit a curious pro- 

 vision for preventing the sand, into which it likes to burrow, from 

 damaging the eye, and at the same time allows sufficient vision, 

 owing to the perfect transparency of the middle of the eyelid. 

 When the fierce north wind raises the clouds of summer dust into 

 a " brickfielder," we might feel inclined to envy the Rhodona and 

 wish we could shut our eyes and have a transparent spot in the 

 lid to look through with impunity. 



The limbs lodge in hollows so as not to project beyond the 

 surface when retracted, thus offering no resistance while burrowing. 



The specimen figured, which is the only one seen as yet, was 

 given to me alive by Mr. Charles Officer, M.P., and was kept in a 

 bottle of sand for some weeks. If brought to the surface, it arched 

 the anterior part of the body, and, plunging the narrow wedge- 

 shaped front of snout into the sand, quickly burrowed out of sight ; 

 the highly polished surface of the scaled body, as smooth as glass, 

 obviously suiting this habit to perfection. I could not induce it to 

 feed in confinement, nor would it eat flies for Mr. Officer, who kept 

 it a week or two before I saw it ; but perhaps, like its near ally, 

 the English Slow- worm, or Blind-worm (Anguis fragilis), it may 

 eat slugs and worms when at liberty. 



In the proportional length of the anterior limb this new species 

 is intermediate between R. punctata (Gray)* = Ronia catenulata 



* An. Nat. Hist., ii., 335. 



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