siderably larger. Eye situated in the ocular plate, in an angle formed by
the junction of the posterior edge of the supraocular and preocular plates,
nearly directly under the hinder edge of the rostral plate. The upper extremity
of the ocular plate terminates in an angle formed by the supraocular
and parietal plates ; the scales of the upper lip three or four pairs, narrow
and elongated. Vide Plate LIV. figs. 1 to 4. The tail is very short, conical,
and towards the point curved downwards. The scales of the body are
small, rather broader than long, each somewhat six-sided. On the body
they are disposed in twenty-nine longitudinal rows.
This reptile is pretty widely distributed over the southern parts of Africa, and is generally
found under large stones and trunks of decayed trees, or in soil broken up by the plough, or
otherwise displaced by the spade or the pick-axe, as often happens in digging up shrubs and
dwarf trees for the purpose of clearing ground for cultivation. When it is exposed to view, it
endeavours to conceal itself under whatever is nearest to it, and if unsuccessful it rolls itself into
a mass, and remains quiet unless seised, when it immediately endeavours to escape.
The nose in this species is more produced than in any of the others yet known; and the
prominent cutting edge of the rostral plate gives to it, when viewed laterally, a much more
pointed appearance.
ONYCHOCEPHALUS BIBRONIL—S m i t h .
R e p t il ia .— P l a t e LI. Fig. 2.
0, superne pallide' aurantio-brunneus, maculis subalbis parvis in lineis longitudinalibus variegatis ; nasi
apice subcuneato; scuto rostrali magno latqque; oculo partim in scuto pieoculari partim in oculart
et partim in supraoculari; scuto preoculari subovato; cauda breve, curvata et aouleata.
C o l o u r .—The upper and lateral parts of the head, body, and tail intermediate
between yellowish and orange coloured brown, the tint rather
pale with a strong lustre; the under parts intermediate between ochre-
yellow and wood-brown. The scales, both of the superior and inferior
parts with a faint white or yellowish white spot on the hinder edge about equidistant from their extremities, the spots are arranged in longitudinal
rows, and in some specimens are very manifest.
F o rm , & c.— The head and the anterior, and middle portions of the
body, slightly flattened, the hinder portion towards tail, and the latter itself
cylindrical; thickness rather greatest about the middle of the body,
considerably less close to and at the head, as also at the point of the tail,
the latter is curved downwards, and its length less than its diameter. Head
above and below flat, in front somewhat wedge shaped. Rostral plate very
wide, its hinder edge immediately over the eyes; the edges of the portion
on the under surface of the nose waved, and only a very narrow part of the hinder edge enters into the formation of the lip; nostrils in the nasal
suture; fronto-nasal plate much broader below than above, where it is
separated from its fellow of the opposite side by the anterior frontal plate
which is wide and short; preocular plate subovate, the posterior edge more arched than the anterior; ocular plate pointed superiorly where it joins
the supraocular, wide and nearly square inferiorly, its hinder edge slightly
arched; frontal, parietal, supraocular and interparietal, plates nearly equal
in size and differing but little in form. Eyes partly in the preocular,