MONOPELT1S* CAPENSIS— Smith. 
Reptilia. — Plate LXVII. 
M. pallide ruber, purpureo-rubro-imbratus ; naribus juxta scutum rostralem ; labri superioris scutis novem, 
inferioris septem ; corporis annulis 207, in partibus quatuor divisis ; caudce annulis integris, scuto 
preanale sex-partito. 
Colour. — Pale rose-red shaded with peach-blossom red, each side varie- 
gated with a narrow longitudinal line of the latter colour, but of a darker tint. 
The large plate on the upper surface of the head straw-yellow. 
Form, &c. — Body and tail cylindrical, nearly of equal thickness, the apex 
of the latter blunt and rounded. Head depressed, the large plate covering it 
slightly convex, its edge anteriorly and laterally thin and cutting. Hind- 
head covered with two transverse rows of scales, the latter varying in number in 
different specimens, generally four or six in the row immediately behind the 
large plate ; in the second the number is much greater. Scales of the upper lip 
nine, one rostral, and four others on each side, the nostril in the scale next 
the rostral ; the scales of lower lip seven, the mental scale subquadrangular, the 
two next on each side very small, the third much larger than the mental, and 
irregularly six-sided. The middle of the under surface of the lower jaw with 
three transverse rows of scales, one in the first row immediately behind the 
mental plate, four in the second, the outermost on each side the longest, seven 
or eight in the third small and quadrangular. Thorax coated with six narrow 
longitudinal plates, the two middle ones about three quarters of an inch in 
length, the next on each side rather shorter, and the outermost little more than 
half the length of the middle ones. Three of the rings of skin, with which the 
body and tail are surrounded, intervene between the under jaw and the plates 
of the thorax. The rings externally, which are narrow, exhibit a number of 
* Ch. Subgen. Head wedge-shaped, above covered with a single large plate. Nostrils under the edge 
of the muzzle. Eyes invisible. Thorax with a series of longitudinal plates. Body surrounded with 
raised cuticular rings, divided into quadrangular compartments by narrow transverse sulci. 
