INTRODUCTION. XV 



majority tliero are four. The eyelids are cnniiivent. Transparent lower 

 lids occur in species of Eumeces. The tongue is slender, exsertile, and pro- 

 vided with a pair of pointed extremities. In habits the Seines are tei-res- 

 trial. They secrete themselves under logs, bark, rocks, leaves, or in 

 shallow burrows in loose earth or sand. Their eggs number ten or a 

 dozen, and are laiil in these situations. East of the Mississippi Etnncccff 

 fasciatits, the "Blue-tail," is the most common; it is found as far Xortli 

 as Illinois and Xew York. Specimens ten inches in length are A'ery large. 

 A second species, E. unthracinii>i, is found in the mountains of Pennsyl- 

 vania and Southward. Two others have been described from Florida. 

 Westward to jNIexico the number is much increased. E. lejdogrammus is 

 taken in Dakota. A species of another genus, OJir/osoma laterale, has a 

 distribution somewhat similar to that of E. fasciatiis, probably not extend- 

 ing quite so far North. The family is found in all tropical and subtrop- 

 ical countries. Trac/it/dosaurus, the "Stump-tail," and C'l/clodus, Australian 

 genera, are of tlie largest. 



A Californian genus, Aniella, furnishes a foundation for the family Aniel- 

 lidfe. This lizard has a long snake-like body and tail, and is without limbs. 



The Acontias, Acontiadce, are from the. Eastern Hemisphere. Aconfias 

 has no limbs, and the upper eyelid is rudimentary. Evesia has short limbs, 

 and the toes are not separate. Nessia has only three toes to the foot. 



One of the common lizards of Southern California and Mexico, Ger- 

 I'honotus, belongs to the Zonuridce, a family of which the greater portion 

 belongs to the old world, and which is specially marked by a distinct longi- 

 tudinal fold or groove along each flank. Another member of this family is 

 the footless snake-lizard, Ophisaurus. The latter has a long, slender tail, 

 which is easily broken, and being longer than the body, more than half the 

 total length can l»e carried away without disabling the animal, which, by 

 a second growth, soon replaces the portion lost. It is to this peculiar genus 

 that we owe the tiction of the "Glass-snake." Pseudopus, an allied genus of 

 Europe and Southern Asia, resembles the preceding, but has on each side 

 of the vent a small limb, on which the toes are not separated. 



The Amphisb.enia form a very distinct suborder of the Sauria. In the 

 typical forms the body is long and subcylindrical, and the tail short antl 

 thick. The bones of the skull are firmly articulated, and the symphysis of 

 the lower jaw is nonelastic. The tongue is flat, thick, and notched at the 

 end; the eyes are small and covered by the skin; the ears are hidden; and 



