256 LIZARDS OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 



preanals; eye small; ear completely hidden; legs reduced to 

 scaled, stumplike rudiments with no indication of digits ; length 

 snout to foreleg contained four and five-tenths in distance be- 

 tween axilla and groin. 



Color in life.' — Above and below dark (sometimes purplish) 

 brown, each scale having a darker area with the edges somewhat 

 lighter ; end of snout grayish. 



Measurements of Brachymeles burksi Taylor. 



Total length, tail partially regenerated 



mm. 



103 



Snout to vent 



73.5 



Axilla to groin 



60 



Snout to foreleg 



13.5 



Width of head 



4.5 



Width of body 



5.4 



Foreleg 



1.1 



Hind leg 



1.3 



Variation. — Very little variation is evident ; most of the spec- 

 imens have twenty-two instead of twenty-four scale rows; one 

 specimen has only five upper labials, the third entering the orbit. 



Remarks. — Several specimens were taken on the eastern 

 coast of Mindoro at Sumagui, on the Liddell Plantation; ten 

 others were taken near Calapan on the northern coast. They 

 were found burrowing under logs and rotting wood. The females 

 give birth to two young. Embryos- taken from one female 

 measured 56 and 54 millimeters, respectively; they seemed 

 almost entirely developed. Known only from Mindoro. 



This species is closely related to Brachymeles honitx, but dif- 

 fers from it in the following characters: The limb stumps are 

 even more reduced; the prefrontals and frontoparietals are 

 smaller; nuchals are present; the mental is much smaller, and 

 the postmental is in contact with two scales instead of one; 

 the second pair of divided chin shields is broader than the first 

 pair, and is separated by a single scale. 



BRACHYMELES BONIT/E Dumeril and Bibron 

 Plate 22, fig. 6 



Brachymeles bonitse Dumeril and Bibron, Erp. Gen. 5 (1839) 777; 

 Gray, Cat. Liz. (1845) 98; Boettger, Ber. Senck. Nat. Ges. (1886) 

 103; Boulenger, Cat. Liz. Brit. Mus. 3 (1887) 388; Taylor, Philip. 

 Journ. Sci. § D 12 (1917) 276. 



Description of species. — (Described from No. 1151, E. H. Tay- 

 lor collection ; collected at Los Banos, Laguna, Luzon, on the side 

 of Mount Maquiling, elevation about 100 meters, April 10, 1916, 

 by E. H. Taylor.) Rostral large, triangular, about as high as 



