Families of existing Lacertilia. 119 



the preanal pores of most Ampliisbaenians, and the anterior 

 limbs of Chirotes are indicative of affinity to tlie Teiida?. 

 Respecting the latter, it may be remarked that in the other 

 Lacertilia which dispense with the limbs, the fore pair dis- 

 appear before the hind pair, and this holds true for the Ophi- 

 dians, the less modified type still showing rudiments of])elvis, 

 whilst not one preserves any thing of the pectoral arch. A 

 reverse process obtains in the Teiidte and Amphisba^nidas. 



I have already put forward my objections to recognizing 

 the suborder Nyctisaura*. 



Having separated the Charaadeons, we are in presence of 

 the large suborder of true Lizards. This I have divided into 

 twenty families, which I regard as perfectly natural groups. 

 But there is great difficulty in arranging these families in a 

 line. Two characters seem to demand special attention — those 

 of the lingual papilla? and the clavicle, as, excepting the 

 Geckos and Eublepharidas, they exactly correspond, i. e. the 

 forms with smooth or villose tongue have a slender, non dilated 

 clavicle, whereas those with scaly tongue have the clavicle 

 strongly dilated proximally and generally enclosing a fora- 

 men. 



Order LACERTILIA. 

 Suborder I. LACERTILIA VERA. 



A. Tongue smooth, or iciih villose papillce ; clavicle dilated, loop-shaped 



proximally ; no jwstorbital or fronio-squamosal arches. 

 Fani. 1. Geckonid^. Vertebra) ampliiccslian ; parietal bones distinct. 

 Fani. 2. Eublepharid.15. Vertebrce proccBlian ; parietal single. 



B. Tongne smooth or with villose papillcB ; clavicle not dilated 

 proximally. 



Fam. 3. ITroplatid.^. Vertebrae amphiccelian ; iuterclavicle minute; 

 no postorbital or postfi'onto-squamosal arches. 



Fam. 4. PyGOPODJB.T':. No postorbital or postfronto-squamosal arches ; 

 pre- and postfrontal bones in contact, separating the frontal from 

 the orbit. 



Fam. 5. Agamid.^. Postorbital and postfronto-squamosal arches pre- 

 sent ; supratemporal fossa not roofed over by bone ; tongue thick ; 

 acrodont. 



Fam. 0. Iguanid.^. Postorbital and postfronto-squamosal arches pre- 

 sent; supratemporal fossa not roofed over by bone; tongue thick; 

 pleurodont. 



Fam. 7. XENOSArsiD.^. Postorbital and postfronto-squamosal arches 

 present ; supratemporal fossa not roofed over ; anterior portion of 

 tongue retractile. 



Fam. 8. Zoxukidje. Postorbital and postfronto-squamosal arches com- 

 plete ; supratemporal fossa roofed over ; tongue simnle. 



Fam. 9. Anguiu,^. Postorbital and posttronto-squaniosal arches present; 

 supratemporal fossa roofed over ; body with osteodermal plates 



* Ann. .t Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) xii. 1883, p. 308. 



