LIZARDS. 



391 



rivers. Others, as the Iguanas, live among the 

 foliage of trees. Some, as the Dragons, perform a 

 sort of flight like that of the flying squirrels. The 

 lizards delight to bask in the genial rays of the sun 

 on exposed sandy banks ; others conceal themselves 

 in humid forests, beneath stones and rotten logs. 

 Some crawl with slow and languid eftbrts; others run 

 with a celerity that the eye can scarcely follow. 

 Though found in almost all countries, the fervent 

 sun of the tropics seems most favourable to their 

 existence, and it is more especially in such regions 

 as have a moist as well as a hot atmosphere that 

 they abound. 



The ribs of the Saurians are moveable, and can be 

 raised or depressed for the purpose of respiration. 

 Their eggs have an envelope more or less hard, and the 

 young issue forth in the form that they always retain. 



Their mouth is invariably furnished with teetli. 

 and with few exceptions their toes have claws. 



The transition from serpents to lizards is happily 

 exemplified by a pretty little animal, common enough 

 in this country, called 



The Slow-worm {Anguis fragiUs), the appearance of which is 



