200 REPTILIA : LACERTILIA. — XXIX. 
Thou whose fame 
Searchest the grass with tongue of flame, 
Making all creatures seem thy game, 
When the whole woods before thee run, 
Asked but — when all is said and done — 
To lie, untrodden, in the sun!” — Bret Harte. 
Orver XXIX. LACERTILIA. (TuHe Lizarps.) 
Reptiles not shielded, with the body usually covered with over- 
lapping scales: mouth not dilatable; tongue free; jaws always with 
teeth. Limbs 4, distinct, rarely rudimentary and hidden by the 
skin; shoulder girdle developed. Feet usually with 5 digits, the 
phalanges normally 2, 3, 4, 5, 38, or 4. Tail usually long and in 
many cases very brittle, readily broken by a slight blow; this is 
owing to a thin, unossified, transverse septum, which traverses 
each vertebra.. “The vertebra naturally breaks with great readi- 
ness through the plane of the septum, and when such lizards are 
seized by the tail, that appendage is pretty certain to part at one 
of these weak points.” (Huzley.) Vent a cross slit; quadrate bone 
articulated to the skull. The great majority of the numerous species 
belong to tropical and sub-tropical regions. The few found within 
our limits give but a slight idea of the whole great group, (Lat., 
lacerta, lizard.) 
Families of Lacertilia. 
a, Tongue covered with imbricate, scale-like papillz or with oblique plice ; 
clavicle dilated proximally, often loop-shaped. 
6. Premaxillary double; temporal fosse roofed over by bone; sternal fon- 
tanelle usually wanting; (tongue not deeply bifid). . Scincip#, 113. 
bb. Premaxillary single; temporal fosse not roofed; sternal fontanelle 
present; (tongue deeply bifid). . . . .'« » %) s Tema die 
aa. Tongue smooth or with villous papillz; clavicle not dilated proximally. 
c. Temporal fossz roofed over by bone; tongue sheathed at tip; body 
with osteodermal plates; (limbs obsolete in our species). 
ANGUIDA, 115. 
cc, Temporal fossz not roofed over; tongue thick; (limbs present). 
IGUANIDA, 116. 
Famitry CXIIL SCINCIDAS. (Tue Sxrinxs.) 
Head regularly shielded ; scales smooth, underlaid by bony plates; 
body fusiform or subcylindrical; nasal plate single, ungrooved, the 
nostril in the centre; limbs present; toes compressed, 5-5; head 
usually without posterior vertical plate, Genera about 60; species 
200; in most parts of the world. 
a, Palate with teeth; two supranasal epi ear Nee its front edge dentate; 
lower eye-lid scaly. ee - - +» « EumeEcss, 293. 
aa. Palate toothless; no supranasal wise: ear very large, circular, exposed ; 
lower eye-lid with a transparent disk, . . . . . Ox1GosomA, 294. 
