AMPHISBAENIDAE PYGOPODIDAE 567 



I have sometimes found this species in Portugal whilst digging 

 for earth-worms in manure-heaps and similar moist places, where 

 they lead the same life as the worms except that they live upon 

 them and upon insects. When kept dry they become very thin 

 and shrunken, but when put back into moist soil they again become 

 turgid and supple within a short time. Those which I have 

 kept in glass jars filled with rich mould throve very well, 

 living upon the tiny insects and worms which infest such com- 

 post soil ; they dug long tortuous channels, in which they moved 

 forwards and sometimes backwards, but they never came to the 

 surface. 



Fam. 18. Pygopodidae. Pleurodont, snake-shaped lizards, 

 without fore-limbs, but with the hind-limbs appearing as a pair 

 of scaly flaps. 



The shoulder-girdle is much reduced. The hind-limbs, 

 although very small and hidden within the scaly, almost fin- 

 like flaps, still possess five toes. The ischium appears externally 

 as a small spur on either side of the anal cleft. The eyes are 

 devoid of movable lids, remaining open and unprotected; the 

 pupil is vertical. The ear is either concealed or exposed. The 

 tongue is fleshy, slightly forked and extensible. The body is 

 covered with roundish imbricating scales. The tail is very long 

 and brittle. The few genera of this undoubtedly natural family 

 of unknown relationship contain in all about ten species, 

 restricted entirely to Australia, Tasmania, and perhaps New 

 Guinea. Next to nothing is known about their habits, except 

 that some of them eat other lizards. 



Pygopus lepidopus is distributed over the whole of Australia. 

 It reaches a total length of about 2 feet, 16 inches of 

 which belong to the tail. General colour coppery grey above, 

 sometimes with several longitudinal series of dark spots. 



Lialis burtoni of nearly the same size and equally wide dis- 

 tribution has the hind-limbs reduced to extremely small, scarcely 

 visible, narrow appendages. 



Sub-Order 3. Chamaeleontes. Acrodont Old- World Saurians 

 with a laterally compressed body, prehensile tail, and well -developed 

 limbs with the digits arranged in opposing, grasping, bundles of 

 two and three respectively. 



The Chameleons are an essentially African family. About 

 half of the fifty species known inhabit Madagascar, the others 



