LIZARDS 87 



The Teguexins, the largest of the American Hzards, are 

 similar in their habits to the Monitors, likewise feeding 

 principally on eggs and small mammals ; they are easily- 

 tamed, captive specimens soon allowing themselves to be 

 handled, and they may be let loose in a room without 

 danger of their attacking or of any difficulty being experi- 

 enced in recapturing them. 



The lizards of the family Gerrhosaurid^, inhabiting 

 Africa and Madagascar, are intermediate between the 

 typical lizards and the Skinks, agreeing with the former in 

 the structure of the skull and the presence of femoral pores 

 (pits producing a secretion, and forming a series under 

 each thigh), and with the latter in the body being protected 

 by bony plates, underlying the scales. As in the Skinks 

 the limbs may be fully developed or rudimentary. 



In the genus Gerrhosaurus, of which G. major, attaining 

 a length of two feet, is the largest representative, a very 

 marked lateral fold, similar to that of Glass Snakes, is 

 constantly present. 



The Skinks, family Scincid^, cosmopolitan lizards, 

 of which the greater number occur in Australia, S. Asia, 

 and Africa, have the body much depressed and covered 

 with usually roundish and smooth scales, underlain by 

 bony plates. The limbs of the members of this family 

 are undergoing a process of reduction, and a single genus 

 may show every stage from the fully developed five-toed 

 type, to such as have these organs almost entirely absent, 

 the degree of development of the limbs, which is often 

 employed for the distinction of the genera in other families, 

 being in these lizards of not more than specific value. 



