192 VERTEBRATE ANIMALS OF THE UNITED STATES 



clouded with irregular blotches: central California, on the slopes of the 

 Sierra Nevada. 



G. principis (Baird & Girard). Length 300 mm.; tail 190 mm.; 

 color light brown, with a middorsal series of irregular dark blotches; 

 dorsal scales obscurely keeled and in 14 rows: western Washington, 

 Oregon and Vancouver Island. 



G. muUicorinatus (Blainville) . Length 270 mm.; tail 160 mm.; color 

 brown or gray with 10 to 14 dark rings across the back, and spotted 

 with white; dorsal scales strongly keeled and in 14 longitudinal rows: 

 California; common. 



G. kingii Gray. Body very small and slender; color light yellowish 

 olive; back with 10 broad black bars, each with a whitish bar behind; 

 tail with 30 half rings; sides with narrow black bars: New Mexico and 

 Arizona. 



G. inf emails Baird. Body very small, depressed; tail twice the 

 length of the head and body; color light olive with 7 or 8 obscure 

 dark bars; dorsal scales keeled, lateral scales smooth: southern Texas. 



2. Ophisaurus Daudin. Body snake-like, without legs; eyelids 

 well developed; ear distinct, but small; tail longer than the body: i 

 species. 



0. ventralis (L.). Glass snake. Length 670 mm.; tail 400 mm.; 

 color brown or greenish with a median and 2 lateral stripes; tail very 

 brittle, whence the name of glass snake; to be distinguished from a snake 

 by the eyelids, the ears and the scaly belly: southern and central States; 

 northward into Virginia, Indiana and Wisconsin ; westward to Nebraska 

 and Texas and Mexico; common in dry meadows, where it feeds on 

 insects and worms. 



Family 4. Anniellidae. — ^Elongate, legless lizards with a cylindri- 

 cal body and no external ear-opening; eye a narrow slit: i genus and 2 

 species. 



Anniella Gray. With the characters of the family: 2 species. 



A . pulchra Gray. Length 180 mm. ; tail 6 mm. ; color gray or brown 

 with 3 dark lines; abdomen yellowish: coastal region of southern 

 California. 



Family 5. Helodermatidae. — ^Large, thick-bodied lizards with 

 brightly colored bodies, covered with small bead-like tubercles; tail 

 short; poison fangs in the lower jaw: i genus. 



Heloderma Wiegmann. With the characters of the family: 2 

 species. 



H. sus pedum Cope. Gila monster. Length 470 mm.; tail 150 

 mm.; color black or purplish, with large, more or less transverse pink 



