LIZARDS 89 



common species, brown in colour, with black and white 

 ocellar spots, likewise of North Africa, but also found in 

 Sardinia, Sicily, and South- Western Asia, is less burrowing 

 in its habits, and much more easily kept in confinement. 

 It is not consistent in its breeding habits, for, although 

 usually viviparous, it has on some occasions been observed 

 to lay eggs in captivity, these having a rough, parchment- 

 like shell. 



This lizard has short but fully developed limbs, provided 

 with five digits. Other members of the genus, however, 

 show various stages in the reduction of these organs, the 

 digits in C. mionecton numbering four, in C. lineatus and 

 C. tridactylus, three, while in C. guentheri each limb is 

 reduced to a minute undivided rudiment. 



Some of the species of the Australian genus Egernia, the 

 majority of which have the scales thick and bony, are 

 remarkable for their spinose tails, recalling in Cunning- 

 ham's Skink, E. cunninghami^ and still more in Stoke's 

 Skink, E. stokesii, and the Spiny-tailed Skink, E. depressa, 

 the state of things mentioned when dealing with the 

 Mastigures and some of the Ctenosaures. All the members 

 of the genus are hardy, subsisting on fruit, insects, and 

 worms. 



The Giant Skink, Tiliqua scincoides, or Blue-tongued 

 Lizard, as it is often called on account of the deep purplish- 

 blue colour of its tongue, also of Australia, is the largest 

 member of the Skink family, some specimens attaining a 

 length of nearly two feet, of which the thick, cylindrical 

 tail accounts for a little less than half. The smooth, shiny, 

 and much flattened body is yellowish-brown above with 

 dark transverse bands, as in the Common Skink, to which, 



