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. 



ORDER XXIX. L.ACEBTILIA. (THE LIZARDS.) 



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, 3, 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." (Huxley.) 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., 

 lacei'ta, lizard.) 



Families of Lacertilia. 



a. Tongue covered with imbricate, scale-like papillae or with oblique plicae ; 



clavicle dilated proximally, often loop-shaped. 



b. Premaxillary double-, temporal fossae roofed over by bone; sternal fon- 



tanelle usually wanting; (tongue not deeply bifid). . SCINCID^E, 113. 



bb. Premaxillary single; temporal fossae not roofed; sternal fontanelle 



present; (tongue deeply bifid), TEID^E, 114. 



aa. Tongue smooth or with villous papillae; clavicle not dilated proximally. 

 c. Temporal fossae roofed over by bone; tongue sheathed at tip; body 

 with osteodermal plates; (limbs obsolete in our species). 



ANGUID^E, 115. 

 cc. Temporal fossae not roofed over; tongue thick; (limbs present). 



IGUANID^E, 116. 



FAMILY CXIIL SCINCID^E. (THE SKINKS.) 



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 plates; ear large; its front edge dentate ; 



lower eye-lid scaly EUMECES, 293. 



aa. Palate toothless; no supranasal plates; ear very large, circular, exposed ; 



lower eye-lid with a transparent disk OLIGOSOMA, 294. 



