134 SAURIA. — SCINCID^. 



viviparous, perhaps the same is true of the v^^hole 

 Family. They are commonly agile creatures, and 

 the shortness of their limbs, and the smoothness 

 of their scales, enable them to glide through 

 small apertures with facility. 



The geographical range of the species is very 

 wide, they being spread, as MM. Dumeril and 

 Bibron observe, over nearly the whole surface 

 of the globe, for they are found in very high 

 latitudes, even in countries where the lowness 

 of the temperature would seem to forbid the 

 existence of Reptiles ; thus the Slow-worm (An- 

 guis fragilis), for example, is found as far north 

 as Sweden, and perhaps farther. Their geogra- 

 phical distribution is otherwise remarkable. Eu- 

 rope does not possess a single species which is 

 peculiar to itself, for though seven species are 

 fomid there, they are all shared with Africa, and 

 two of them also with Australia and Polynesia. 

 Africa, besides these, has eighteen of its own ; 

 seventeen are peculiar to Asia, and three others 

 it shares with America or Polynesia. Sixteen 

 species are American, but one of these is also 

 Asiatic, and another is cosmopolite. Australia 

 and Polynesia are the regions richest in the 

 Scincid(^y for they possess forty species, four only 

 of which are common to other divisions ; and 

 it is remarkable that all the other Saurian Fami- 

 lies are comparatively deficient there. 



Genus Celestus. (Gray.) 



The nostrils in this genus open on the sides 

 of the muzzle, in the nasal plate ; the tongue 

 is notched at the tip, clothed with papilla?, which 



