162 REPTILES OF THE WORLD 



moss and rich soil. A specimen may suddenly emerge 

 from a damp spot, clean and shining, seemingly as im- 

 mune to a stain from the soil as is a duck's back to 

 water. 



In one part of the structure the Blind Worm is sin- 

 gularly interesting. The teeth are recurved, fang-like 

 and show traces of a groove. Here are actually indica- 

 tions of, with time, the formation of a poisonous lizard. 

 The existence of such a character brings us directly to 

 the only known lizards that are venomous, two in num- 

 ber. 



The Beaded Lizards: Two strange American liz- 

 ards form the family Helodermatidce. In the ring-like 

 setting of their tubercular scalation they show their near 

 relationship to the Anguidce. They are very stout of 

 body with a short, fat tail. Above they are covered with 

 close-set, beady tubercles; beneath with flat plates or 

 scales. Their coloration is always vivid — pink and 

 black, or yellow and black, arranged in irregularly 

 blotched fashion on the body, in broad rings on the tail. 

 The effect of the warty surface, together with the glar- 

 ing combination of colors is exactly like Indian bead- 

 work. 



From the character of the dentition, the present spe- 

 cies are unique among lizards. The teeth are recurved, 

 fang-like and swollen at the base; those on the lower 

 jaw are strongly grooved on both the front and the rear 

 surface. At the bases of these teeth is a chain of 

 glands containing a venom very similar in its composi- 

 tion to that secreted by the poisonous snakes, and suf- 

 ficiently powerful to produce death with man. 



The Beaded Lizards dwell only in desert places; one 

 in the United States and another in Mexico and Central 

 America. Between the two lies a great stretch of coun- 



