162 BULLETIN 58^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



by suture, while in the Squamata, embracing snakes and hzards, it is 

 loosely articulated with the cranium at the proximal end; the last 

 two orders have one-headed ribs. 



As stated, recent Rhynchoceplialia occur only in New Zealand, and 

 the crocodiles are not known with certainty to enter our territory, in 

 which consequently only the Squamata and the Testudinata are found. 

 These two orders are always easily distinguished by their external ap- 

 pearance alone, the solid encasement of the turtles in their bony shell, 

 covered by horny plates or a soft skin, being a character quite sufficient. 

 Moreover, the presence of teeth in the squamate order contrasts 

 easily with the toothless horn-sheathed jaws of the turtles. 



Sul3cleiss DIAPSID^. 



1903. Diapsidaa. F. Osborx, Science (n. p.), XVII. Feb. 10, 1903, p. 276. 



Order SQUAMATA. 



1811. Squamata Opvel, Ordn. Rept., p. 14. 



1825. Squamosa Latreille, Fam. Nat. Regne Anim., p. 93. 



1831. Ophidosaurii Eichw.\ld, Zool. Specialis, III, p. 168. 



1854. Streptostylica Stannius, Handb. Zootom., II, Wirbelth., Pt. 2, Ampli., p. 5. 



1866. Lepidosauria Haeckel, Gen. Morphol., II, p. cx.xxvi. 



1898. Sauria Gadow, Classif. Vertebr., p. 24. 



Besides the chameleons, which form a suborder by themselves (Pren- 

 dentia, or Rhi'ptoglossi) , but do not occur east of India, the order 

 Squainata consists of two suborders — the lizards {Sauria) and the 

 snakes (Serpentes). The anatomatical characters which distinguish 

 them consist chiefly in the separate condition of the rami of the lower 

 jaw in the snakes, while they are solidly united in the lizards; in the 

 total absence even of vestiges of a pectoral arch in the snakes; and in 

 the closing of the brain case anteriorly in the latter. There are no 

 external characters which will in all cases separate a snake from a 

 limbless lizard, except that in the latter the tongue is not retractile 

 into a basal sheath, while in most cases they possess distinct eyelids 

 and ear-openings, both wanting in the snakes. All the lizards within 

 the region here treated of have four limbs and are thus easily distin- 

 guished from the snakes. 



Suborder SAURIA. 



1788. Lacertpe Batsch, Anleit. Kenntn. Thiere Mineral., I (p. 437). 



1802. Sauria Macartney, in Ross' Transl. Cuvier's Lect. Comp. Anat., I, tab. iii. 



1803. Sauri Daudin, Hist. Nat. Rept., V, tabl., p. 8. 



1804. Saurii Latreille, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., XXIV, tabl. meth., p. 61. 

 1828. PneumahiTomolgaci Ritgen, Nova Acta Acad. Leop. Carol., XIV, p. 274. 

 1828. Saiirai Wagler, Isis, 1828, p. 860. 



1831. LacerHna Mueller, Tiedem. et Trevir. Zeitschr. Phys., IV, p. — . 



