136 



:tough]y handled, there is no doubt that the popular notion is correct. 

 Two-thirds or more of the Glass-snake is tail. It is a well known fact that 

 many lizards on being seized drop their {ails in order to free themselves or 

 to deceive the pursuer. The tail thus lost may be reproduced. When 

 occasion appears to demand the sacrifice, the Glass-saake sunders its tail 

 into a number of wriggling pieces, and while the astonished observer 

 stands viewing the wreck, the head and body hastens to a place of safety. 

 In order that all these pieces might unite again to form a sound lizard, 

 they would have to be fitted together in the proper order, and with the 

 ends turned in the right direction ; the half dozen or more conical muscu- 

 lar masses which project from the ends of the pieces would have to be in- 

 terdigitated accurately ; the nerves and blood, vessels would need to come 

 into juxtaposition ; and then all the torn surfaces unite by " immediate 

 union" so quickly and eflectively that the animal can betake itself to its 

 business. Hard as the possibility of accepting all this is for the natural- 

 ist, such is the popular notion, and a writer in the Scientific American, 

 September 3, 1887, says that he seen the thing done. Before s&ientific 

 men will believe the assertion it will have to be well corroborated. 



The specimen of the Glass-snake which was taken in Starke county, 

 Ind. , was sent to the editor of the Popular Science Monthly (vol. xxx, 

 p. 122,) for examination. The account of it is mixed up with the name 

 of the Chain-snake, but the reference to the position of the vent shows 

 plainly that it was a Glass-snake, as the editor also says it was. 



This animal appears to select for its abode dry, rather than damp, situ- 

 ations. Holbrook states that it often is found in sweet-potato hills in 

 time of harvest. It is entirely harmless, and cau be easily tamed. It 

 probably will not bite at all, and could do no injury if it did ; but people 

 who know little about reptiles think that all snakes and lizards, as well 

 as all salamanders, are poisonous. It is said that the Glass-snake ap- 

 pears very early in the spring, even before the true snakes, and remains 

 late in the autumn. About its breeding habits I have been able to learn 

 nothing definite. It probably lays its eggs in the grouod. Drs. Cones 

 and Yarrow say that several individuals of this lizard were eaten by a 

 specimen of Opkiholus getulus sayi that was kept in the same cage. 



Family V. TEIID^. 



Lizards with form varying from moderately stout to vermiform. 

 Limbs usually present and well developed ; sometimes rudimentary, and 

 in one genus the hinder limbs are absent. Dentition various. Tongue 

 thin, flat, ending in two long smooth points, and having its upper sur- 

 face covered w'ith overlapping scale-like papillse. Plates of the head 

 large or small. No bony plates underlying the epidermal scales. 



A family comprising 3i> genera and over 100 species ; all living in the 

 .New World. 



