LIZARDS 73 



part of South Africa, attains a length of nearly two feet ; 

 its entire body and tail, and the back of the head are armed 

 with large spines, on which it entirely relies for defence. 

 It lives in dry, rocky districts, retreating into underground 

 burrows at night and during the period of hibernation. 



Although the average duration of life of this lizard in 

 captivity may be put down at as much as five or six years, 

 it never becomes at all tame, but, on its cage being opened, 

 dashes about in the wildest manner. It is strictly carni- 

 vorous, with a partiality for earthworms. 



Pseudocordylus, likewise of South Africa, of which P. 

 microlepidotus is the sole representative, may be dis- 

 tinguished from Zonurus by the small, flat, and roundish 

 tubercles of the back ; the tail, however, is almost as spinose 

 as in the latter genus. 



In Chamcesaura, in which the body is long and snake-like, 

 the degeneration of both pair of limbs is progressive, 

 starting with Ch. anea, with both pairs present and half 

 an inch long, and ending with Ch. macrolepis, in which the 

 fore limbs are entirely absent and the hind ones almost 

 invisible to the naked eye. 



The lizards of the family Anguid^^: are not very far 

 removed from the Iguanidce, although differing so much 

 from them in external appearance. They have likewise 

 a short tongue devoid of scale-like papillae, but its anterior, 

 bifid portion is retractile into a fold in the posterior portion. 

 Unlike the Iguanidce, they are covered with bony plates 

 underlying the horny scales, as in many of the Xonuridce^ 

 which differ in the anterior portion of the tongue not being 

 retractile. 



