90 BRITISH LIZARDS 



The reader who has niastered the few preceding 

 pages will have no trouble in understanding the 

 descriptions of the specific characters of the lizards, 

 though these would otherwise be unintelligible. He 

 will now be able to appreciate the statement that 

 normally in Lacerta vivipara there is a single post- 

 nasal shield, and a single anterior loreal shield, while 

 in Z. agilis there is usually a single post-nasal and two 

 superimposed anterior loreals, the three shields forming 

 a triangle. 



We are now in a position to enumerate the specific 

 characters of the British lizards, as they are given 

 in the British Museum Catalogue of Beptiles (second 

 edition, vol. ii. 1885, and vol. iii. 1887, by G. A. 

 Boulenger, F.E.S.). 



" Family Anguid^. Genus Anguis. 



" No lateral fold. Scales roundish, arranged quin- 

 cuncially on the back, forming vertical series on the 

 sides. No limbs. Teeth fanghke. Palate toothless. 



" Europe, Western Asia, Algeria. 



" Anguis fragilis, the Slow-worm. 



" Frontal large, its anterior angle wedged in between 

 a pair of pre-frontals ; an azygos pre-frontal in front 

 of the latter, separated from the nasal by two small 

 shields ; 1 or 2 small azygos shields behind the 

 very small rostral ; nasal very small, separated from 

 the latter by one shield; labials and loreals small, 



