Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 
97 
occasionally ten, and sometimes only six dark longitudinal stripes dorsally, 
and in all these lineated specimens of meleagris there are fourteen scales 
round the middle of the body, and sixteen round the anterior two-fifths 
of the body. 
The eastern Cape Province specimens of lineatus resemble the young 
of meleagris in nearly every respect — elongation of snout, form of head 
scutes, and scaling of the body — but differ in that there are only two (instead 
of three) supraoculars, and the dark lines are of almost uniform width, 
whereas in meleagris the innermost pair is broadest (broader than the pale 
interspace, which is not ordinarily the case in lineatus), and there is a 
successive diminution of width to the outermost pair. 
In the collection of the Port Elizabeth Museum there are four specimens 
of lineatus, of which one is of normal coloration, but the other three 
which are more juvenile, are quite white, with no colour markings what- 
ever. As in meleagris the frontal is much longer than the fronto-nasal 
or the interparietal, which latter scute is small ; the frontal and fronto-nasal 
together are about equal to the rostral, and the mental projects back 
beyond the rostral ; there are fourteen scales round the middle of the 
body, and sixteen in the first third of the total length ; the smallest 
specimen is only four and a half inches long. 
In all these specimens the snout is less projecting than in the more 
typical form of lineatus as found in western Cape Province, and it is just 
possible that they are merely the young of lineated meleagris, but I prefer 
to regard them as lineatus, for it seems to me that the character of the 
number of supraoculars is more reliable than the form of the snout. 
However, a lineated specimen of meleagris from Alicedale (Albany Museum) 
has only %o supraoculars on the left side, and three on the right, and 
a Grahamstown specimen has the same abnormality. Our smallest 
specimen of meleagris is not lineated, and the length is only three and a 
quarter inches. From the same locality (Grahamstown), and sent to us 
at the same time, we have a lineated specimen eight inches long. 
Scelotes . — I have not seen sufficient material of this genus to justify 
a revision of the specific characters, though doubtlessly this is much to be 
desired, as a number of the South African species were described from 
solitary specimens. 
The key is drawn up almost entirely from the British Museum 
Catalogue. 
S. bicolor Sm. ought to be rediscovered, as apparently the type and 
only known specimen is lost. It may even be a species of ITerpetosaura, 
though this is not very probable, for Herpetosaura belongs to the eastern 
portion of the sub-continent. 
S. inornatus Smith. — This species has a strong superficial resemblance 
to Herpetosaura anguina. They are to be distinguished by means of the 
generic character (palatine bones), by the colour, and perhaps by means 
of the ratio of the length of the body to that of the tail. 
The description of the British Museum Catalogue cites : “ Frontal 
not twice as long as the fronto-nasal ”, but in the specimen belonging to 
the Natal Government Museum the frontal is more than twice as long as 
the fronto-nasab 
