and the same remark applies to their colouring. In the Yunnan examples, the upper
surface is light brown, darker on the head; the under aspect is pale yellow. The
lateral fold begins one inch behind the gape, and its ventral margin has a dark edge,
and, a scale’s breadth below it, there is a faint dark lateral line, and, at the same
distance above it, a dark broad, almost black line running from an inch behind
the gape to the tip of the tail. There is a ventral series of black spots on the
anterior two-thirds of the body. In some specimens these spots are bright blue; in
others they extend across the back as transverse blue bands with dilated lateral
portions, forming an interrupted band along the side.
Family—SCJNCIDM
Genus T b .o p i d o p h o b .u s , D. & B.
TB.OPiDOPHOB.trs b e b .d m o b .e i , Blyth. Plate LXXVI, Pig, 3.
Aspris berdmorei, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc., Bengal, vol. xxii, 1858, p. 6 5 0 ; Gunther, Kept. B. In d .,
1864, p . 77.
Tropidophorus berdmorei, Theobald, Cat. Kept. As. Soc. Mus. Journ. As. Soc., Bengal, E x . No.,
vol. xxxvii, 1868, p. 23 ; Jo um . L in n . Soc., vol. x, 1868, p . 2 4 ; Descr., Cat. Kept. B rit. In d .,
1876, p. 48.
I obtained specimens of this species in the Hotha valley, Yunnan.
Lower eyelid scaly. No supranasals, The prefrontal forms a suture with the
rostral, and meets in a point with the vertical and postfrontal. The vertical has narrow
hinder margins and is transversely truncated. A pair of small anterior and of
large posterior occipitals separated by a narrow wedge-like azygos shield. Pour super-
ciliaries. Two loreals and one prefrontal. Six upper labials. A pair of large anal
scales. Sub-caudals large. Thirty-four rows of scales round the body. Porty-five
transverse rows between the axilla and groin. The fore limbs feeble, reaching only
to the angle of the mouth. The hind leg, when laid forwards, stretches half-way
between the groin and axilla. Total length 6"*75; tail 3-50.
TJpper surface dark brown, with light brown margins. Back and tail with
a series of large yellowish-brown transverse blotches, with black margins. They
extend on to the sides of the back, and each has two or-three white spots at its lateral
margins. They become very indistinct on the tail. Side of the body and tail
with small white spots. Under surface yellowish; chin, neck and under surface of
tail marbled with brown.
The remarkable circumstance connected with these Yunnan specimens of this
species is that the scales are quite smooth, whereas in the types from Mergui
described by Blyth, and also in other specimens in the British Museum presented by
Mr. Theobald from Pegu, the scales of the back are strongly keeled. My specie
mens are adult, and with this enigmatical exception of the entire absence of keeling,
agree in every other particular with Blyth’s types, with which I have compared
them. The identity is so perfect that no course is left but to regard these keeled
and non-keeled lizards as belonging to one and the same species. There is this
also to be kept in view, that in specimens in the British Museum, two of which are
half-grown, while the other is an adult female, the keeling in the former is much
more distinct than in the latter.
Tropidophorus microlepis, Giinther, is nearly allied to T. cochmchinensis. I t has
the posterior frontals forming a wide suture together. In T. microlepis there is a distinct
tendency tp the formation of keels in the ventral scales, more especially visible
in those of the under surface of the neck, near the chest. The posterior nares are
situated further back than in T. berdmorei, and occupy about the same position as in
T. grayi. In T. cochmchinensis the posterior nares occupy about the same position
as in T, berdmorei, and the scales on the under surface, except on the throat, are
smooth, On the latter locality they are somewhat keeled. The under surface of
T. grayi is keeled.
The coloration of T. cochmchinensis, T. microlepis, and T, berdmorei is much
the same in all.
Theobald’s specimens were captured among wet gravel in the stony beds of
streams. I found it among rubble on the banks of the Namsa, in the Hotha valley,
at an elevation of 4,500 feet.
The types were obtained in Mergui, and Theobald observed it on the Pegu range,
forty miles from Rangoon. The other species T. cochmchinensis and T. microlepis
are from Cochin China and Siam respectively, and T, grayi inhabits the Philippines.
Genus M o c o a , Gray.
M o c o a e x ig t j a , n. s .
The small lizard which I describe under this name was obtained at Momien.
The eye has a transparent disc. No supranasal. Ear without denticles or
lobules. The prefrontal single, in contact with the rostral, and broadly so with the
vertical. Eour superciliary shields. A pair of anterior occipitals; the azygos
shield separating them from the posterior occipitals rather large. The posterior
occipitals broad and large. A pair of very large anals with a small shield on either
side of them. Twenty-eight rows of scales round body. Eorty-five rows between
the axilla and groin. Limbs feeble, the fore legs reach to the eye, the hind legs
to half-way between the axilla and groin. A dark .brown band from the snout
along the back to the tail, on which it disappears near the root. A pale greenish-
yellow band from above the posterior angle of the eye, along the side of the back
to the base of the tail, in the colour of which it is lost. A broad brown band from
the side of the snout through the eye and ear and above the fore limbs along the
side, disappearing a short way beyond the hind limbs* The under surface pale
yellowish-brown. Tail uniform olive, with a dorsal and lateral series of minute
black dots, corresponding to the dark body-bands, Limbs spotted brown and
olive,