Found at Bahia Blanca by Mr. Darwin. The specimens are probably all of them very young; hence the longitudinal lines can scarcely be considered as permanent, as most species of the genus are beautifully lineated in the young state. The length of the tail, with its carinated scales, the general elegance of the form, the gracile form of the head, and the neat and distinct arrangement of the colours, render this one of the most beautiful species of this elegant genus.

The description of the colours given above, being from specimens which have been long in spirits, it is necessary to state that Mr. Darwin has the following notice respecting one of them—“On the sides two dark red streaks; tail red.”

Familia—ZONURIDÆ.
Genus—Gerrhosaurus. Weigmann.
Gerrhosaurus sepiformis. Bibr.

Corpore cum caudâ longo, serpentiformi; pedibus parvis; squamarum submaxillarum pari secundo contiguis; squamis dorsalibus magnis, subrectangularibus, striatis, in seriebus tredecem, et ventralibus in seriebus octo dispositis.

Habitat, Cape of Good Hope.

After a careful examination of the data from which the different synonyms of this species, and of Gerrhosaurus flavigularis, Bibr., have been derived, I am inclined to agree with this author, that the present is the true Scincus sepiformis of Schneider, and of Merrem, and not Scincus flavigularis as supposed by Wagler, Weigmann, and Gray. It is very fully described by Bibron in the “Histoire Naturelle des Reptiles,” but it has not hitherto been figured. There is no notice of it in Mr. Darwin’s notes, further than its having been obtained at the Cape of Good Hope.

Aurium margine anteriore simplici; squamis corporis, in seriebus XXIV dispositis.

As I have not the work of the lamented Dr. Cocteau by me, I quote the above reference from M. Bibron’s work, in which this species is fully described. It differs from the other species of this curious genus in many minute characters of the scaling of the head, but the most tangible and obvious distinctive character consists in the number of series of scales, which does not exceed twenty-four, all around the body, whilst in the others, they amount to thirty-four or thirty-eight. It would appear that it is liable to some considerable diversity in colour and markings. That which M. Bibron describes, has “the head of a yellowish grey, the whole of the upper part of the body olive grey, and the inferior part whitish grey.” The specimen in the collection of the Zoological Society has the whole upper part of a brownish grey, with twelve black lines extending from the neck along the back and tail, corresponding with the sutures of the longitudinal series of scales. The under surface of the tail is marked by about thirty transverse, interrupted, black bands. The following is the description given by Mr. Darwin from his specimen when taken,—“Scales on the centre of the back light greenish brown, edged on their sides with black; scales on the sides of the body above greyer and with less black, below reddish: belly yellow, with numerous narrow, irregular, waving, transverse lines of black, which are formed by the lower margin of some of the scales being black; head above grey, beneath whitish.” Mr. Darwin adds, that the motion of the body, when crawling, resembles that of a snake. It is not very active. Coleoptera and larvæ were found in its stomach. “It is common in the open woods near Hobart Town in Van Diemen’s Land.”