ONYCIIOCEPHALUS VERTIGALIS. 
arranged in twenty-three or twenty four longitudinal rows ; those of the tail, 
in about twenty rows. 
Length from nose to anus, 6 inches 7g lines ; length of the tail, 2 j lines. 
Inhabits the interior districts of South Africa, and has not, so far as I know, been 
found within the boundaries of the Cape Colony. Like the other species, it lives under 
stones, or in the ground. It offers characters by which it is easily distinguished from 
the other species yet described. First, — the form of its rostral plate, which behind is laterally 
swelled, so as to form what is termed spatulate ; secondly, the junction superiorly of the naso 
rostral plates, which peculiarity, as well as the shape of the rostral plate, will be best under- 
stood by referring to Plate LIV. Fig. 17. 
Note. — Figs. 13 — 16, of Plate LIV. represent the head, &c. either of a variety of Onychocephaius 
Capensis , or if of a distinct species, one very' closely allied to it. The chief differences will be seen to 
consist in the form and size of the scales behind the head plates, and in the arrangement of the scales 
behind the mouth ; — in Onychocephaius Capensis , the scales, it will be observed, are larger and more 
regularly disposed than in the other. 
Fig. 25 of the same Plate is without the division in the upper part of each naso-rostral plate, 
which is observed in fig. 21. I am disposed to consider the arrangement in 25, as the more common 
one, and that in 21 as a variety. 
