by John Hewitt. 5 



far as one can judge from the rather brief account of its author, was 

 described by Peters from Manische, near Inhambane, under the name 

 of llerpetosaura inornata, var. mossambica : this was referred by 

 Boulenger to Scelotes inomatus. 



Another quite distinct species is known to me from Natal and 

 Zululand. Although the head scaling thereof, as I have previously 

 pointed out, differs in important respects (absence of post-nasals, 

 temporals elongated) from the description of Scelotes guentheri, Blgr., 

 it should probably be referred to that species, and two such specimens 

 from the junction of the Umfolosi Rivers, Zululand, now in the Natal 

 Museum, were thus identified by Boulenger himself : the type is 

 apparently an aberrant specimen. Of this species, the Transvaal 

 Museum possesses a large series of specimens from Portuguese East 

 Africa, in all of which, according to Mr. G. van Dam, the hind limb 

 rudiment is present. 



In these specimens, the palatines are united for a considerable 

 distance and thus the species is easily distinguished from natalensis, 

 quite apart from the hind limb rudiment. In view of the more or 

 less intermediate nature of the palatines in natalensis, it seems to me 

 no longer desirable to maintain the genus Herpetosaura (or Herpeto- 

 as distinct from Scelotes. 



The Transvaal Museum has two interesting specimens of a Scelotes 

 from Forbes Reef, Swaziland. These seem to be referable to 

 Herpetosaura mira, Roux. The smaller example has the palatines in 

 contact, just as in a typical Scelotes : the larger one has the palatines 

 just separated, and thus falls in the Herpetosaura group. This species, 

 though resembling //. anguina in the head scaling, is clearly not 

 closely related thereto, considering the pentadactyl limbs, the distinct 

 ear opening, and the body colouration which is paler at the sides than 

 above. On the other hand, in spite of the resemblance in limb 

 characters, it does not seem to be allied to S. capensis, which has a 

 transparent lower eyelid and a post-nasal scute. Nevertheless, the 

 eyelid character does not exclude mira from the pentadactyl group of 

 Scdotes, for three of the Malagasy species are like mira in this respect : 

 but, these three species all have a distinct post-nasal scute. The 

 absence of a post-nasal, again, does not separate mira from all the 

 limbed species of the genus, for S. bipes is without that scute, and 

 perhaps also tridactylus, the description of which contains no allusion 

 to this character. 



