THE TRUE LIZARDS 2519 



with great affection, and that if the snake be taken away from a nest the saubas 

 will forsake the spot. I once took one quite whole out of the body of a young jar- 

 araca [a poisonous snake] , whose body was so distended with its contents that the 

 skin was stretched out to a film over the contained amphisbaena. I was, unfor- 

 tunately, not able to ascertain the exact relation which subsists between these 

 curious reptiles and the sauba ants. I believe, however, that they feed upon the 

 saubas, for I once found the remains of ants in the stomach of one of them." 



THE TRUE LIZARDS 

 Family LACERTID^ 



The true lizards, constituting the typical representatives of the suborder, form 

 a large family, with seventeen genera, distributed over Europe, Asia, and Africa 

 (exclusive of Madagascar) , but most abundant in Africa, and comparatively rare in 

 the Oriental countries. Taking the place in the Old World occupied in the New 

 by the greaved lizards, these reptiles are readily distinguished from the latter by 

 the temporal fossa of the skull being roofed over with bone as shown in the figure 

 of the skeleton on p. 2466, and likewise by the shields of the head being firmly 

 attached to the underlying bones, as well as by the union of the two premaxillary 

 bones, the latter feature being common to this family and the amphisbaenas. All 

 of them have well-developed limbs, each furnished with five toes, the body plump 

 and separated by a well-marked neck from the head, the tail long and brittle, the 

 drum of the ear exposed, and the eyelids distinct and generally freely mobile. The 

 skin contains no bony plates; the scales of the back are either overlapping or in ap- 

 position; while those of the under surface are generally larger, and arranged in longi- 

 tudinal and transverse rows. The teeth are always attached to the sides of the 

 edges of the jaws (pleurodont), and differ from those of the grooved lizards in their 

 hollow bases; those of the cheek series having two- or three-cusped crowns. The 

 flat and scaled tongue is of considerable length and cleft both in front and behind, 

 so as to assume the form of an arrowhead. As a rule, pores are present on the 

 hinder surface of the thigh. 



Out of about one hundred species of true lizards, two are found in the British 

 Islands, where, with the exception of the blindworm, they are the only represent- 

 atives of the suborder; but many others inhabit Southern Europe. Lizards of this 

 family are veritably creatures of the sun, delighting to bask in its rays on some 

 warm sandy bank, wall, or rock, and retiring to their holes and crannies in cloudy 

 or rainy weather. The more powerful and bright the sun, the more active, in- 

 deed, do these reptiles become, since most of them are dull and listless in the morn- 

 ing and evening, and only wake to full activity in the midday glare. Over the 

 greater part of Europe they spend a large portion of their time in their holes, 

 and with the commencement of October retire for their winter sleep, from 

 which they do not awake till spring is well advanced. Comparatively rare in North- 

 ern Europe, in the south of the continent lizards are common enough to form an 



