160 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL) SOCIETY, 
Several notes have been made relating to the family Anguide. 
A specimen of the European Blindworm or Glass “Snake” 
(Anguis fragilis) gave birth to twelve living young. These 
snake-like creatures were born in thin sacs, in the same fashion 
as viviparous snakes, which they immediately pierced, and with- 
in a few days after birth were eating small earthworms. The 
mother displayed no interest in her offspring. ‘This is the only 
species of the snake-like Lacertilians that the writer has observed 
to be strictly viviparous. The common Glass “Snake” (Ophi- 
saurus ventralis), a reptile of the southern United States, be- 
longing to the Anguide, deposits about a dozen eggs covered 
with a thin, soft integument, which at the time of oviposition 
contain well-formed embryos. Such eggs hatch in less than half 
the time required for the development of eggs of the strictly 
viviparous species. Similar habits have been noted in the Five- 
Lined Lizard (Eumeces quinquelineatus) of the eastern United . 
States. Eight specimens in the collection deposited eggs in their 
cases under strips of bark. The eggs varied in number from two 
to four, and possessed a very thin covering. In direct opposi- 
tion to the writer’s experience with other lizards, this species 
evinces a unique but energetic interest in its own eggs. Each 
female specimen coiled herself in serpentine fashion about them, 
and remained in this position, declining all food until they 
hatched, which in some instances occurred in the short period of 
three weeks after being laid. When the young emerged, the 
parent took no notice of them. 
By their habits in reproduction, lizards may be separated into 
three groups, as follows: First, the strictly oviparous species; 
second, those species which deposit eggs with thin integu- 
ments containing rapidly developing embryos; and third, the 
truly viviparous forms, which produce fully developed young. 
On account of the variations noted in the incubation periods of 
different species, the second group shows a relationship to the 
viviparous group. 
Generally speaking, lizards deposit a much smaller number of 
eggs than snakes. Regarding the breeding of the Lacertilians, 
much remains to be learned, but owing to the frailty of many of 
these creatures in captivity, however, their life histories are diffi- 
cult to determine. 
