194 AFFINITIES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 



their type. First, and nearest to the crocodiles, may be cited 

 the Varanidce, a group composed of the Ouran or varan of the 

 Nile, the Monitors of both worlds, the Tupinambis, and other 

 genera ; animals living upon small reptiles and insects, chiefly 

 frequenting land, but also occasionally haunting the banks of 

 rivers. The varan is so like the crocodile, and makes such an 

 approach to it in bulk, that the Egyptians believe it to spring 

 from an egg of that animal which has been hatched in dry 

 earth. The skin of the varanians is " furnished with enchased 

 scales, which are tuberculous, projecting, rounded upon the 

 head as well as upon the back and sides, always distributed in 

 rings or circular bands, parallel under the belly and round the 

 tail." The teeth are planted in a furrow, and curve backward. 

 Next may be mentioned the Lacertidce, or True Lizards, of 

 which the only living examples are small insect-eating animals, 

 in a great variety of specific forms, scattered over the warm 

 and temperate countries of the Old World ; the least repulsive 

 of all reptiles, often indeed of beautiful form and colouring. 

 In intimate alliance with them may be placed the Geckos, which 

 are of nocturnal habits, and the Chameleons, which again are 

 inhabitants of trees, all of these being likewise insectivorous. 

 In palaeontology, the lacertian animals date from the conclu- 

 sion of palaeozoic times. The huge extinct Monitors of the 

 Thuringian Zechstein, the thecodonts of the nearly contempo- 

 rary dolomitic conglomerate of Redland near Bristol, were 

 among the patriarchs of these families. The Mosasaurus, the 

 Geosaurus, and the Megalosaurus, were likewise huge early 

 specimens of this division of the sauria. Finally, we have the 

 Iguanidce, the most harmless of all the Sauria, being generally 

 restricted to a vegetable diet ; to this family belong the anolis, 

 stellio, dragons, basilisks, and other species. 



The serpents (Ophidia) are usually placed as a distinct order 

 of reptiles ; such was the arrangement of Cuvier ; but Merreni 

 and several other modern naturalists of high character, place 

 them in connexion with the squamate sauria ; and there, un- 

 doubtedly, natural classification requires that they should be. 

 From those sauria to the ophidia, there is such a series of 

 transitional forms in the scinks and chalcidse, where we see the 

 body gradually becoming elongated and more serpentiform, and 

 the limbs diminishing away to mere rudiments, that it is im- 

 possible to assign exact limits to the various genera. We may 

 even see in the perfect varanians a preparation for this new 

 form. In these animals the bones of the head have, in part, 



