THE VIVARIUM. 127 
which the black and white bear to one another. Occasionally the 
spots are absent. The lower parts of the creature’s body are of 
a yellowish-white. 
This beautiful Skink lives very well in confinement, and is not 
difficult to procure in this country, costing, generally, about 
7s. 6d. Except when the sun is shining, it lives under the sand 
with which the bottom of the Vivarium is covered. It will eat 
small snails, beetles, cockroaches, mealworms, and flies; and as 
Fic. 46.—OCELLATED SAND-SKINK (Gongylus ocellatus). 
it has more than a predisposition to cannibalism it must not be 
kept with other Reptiles smaller than itself. I have seen one of 
these Skinks swallow without much difficulty a full-grown Vivi- 
parous Lizard (L. vivipara). The total length of this animal is 
about 10in. It comes from Sicily, Sardinia, Malta, Greece, 
Cyprus, Palestine, Syria, Persia, Arabia, and Abyssinia. 
The Greenish Sand-Skink (Seps viridanus, Gravenh., or Chal 
cides viridanus, Boulenger), which is closely related to the 
