S C I N C U S. 



tympanum of the ear is seated more deep than in 

 the lizards ; arid the anterior margin of the auditory 

 opening is furnished with three or four teeth. 



As is the case with all the reptiles, and with the 

 Sauria more than any of the others, the various 

 species of skinks are not well arranged, owing to 

 their number, and the limited knowledge which 

 we have of their manners. They are all natives of 

 warm countries, and the typical species belongs to 

 Africa ; but there are some in the hot and dry parts 

 of the south of Europe. From the character of the 

 teeth, we naturally conclude that these reptiles feed 

 upon insects ; but very little is known of their man- 

 ners, or their use in the economy of nature. As is 

 often the case, however, the absence of an apparent 

 use in nature led to the adopting of a fancied 

 one. This was a medicinal one, and it is somewhat 

 curious, though perhaps not unnatural, that such 

 should have been the case the causes of disease 

 were unknown, and substances which had no other 

 known utility were supposed to have medicinal 

 virtues. 



Common Skink (S. officinalis). This is the one 

 which has been so much celebrated for its supposed 

 medicinal virtues, though it is not the animal which 

 the Greeks called by the same name, for that was the 

 land crocodile of Egypt, which is a Monitor ; but this 

 is the one which has been so celebrated in more 

 modern times, and which still maintains its character 

 in some parts of the world to such an extent, that it 

 forms a considerable article of export from Upper 

 Egypt. The other is called auran cl pard by the 

 Arabs, and this one el adda. It is a small reptile, 

 seldom exceeding six or seven inches in length, of a 

 yellow colour, with some bands of black, and with the 

 tail about one-third of the whole length. The scales 

 with which it is covered have a metallic lustre, and, 

 altogether, it is not an ugly creature. It is found in 

 all the countries on the Upper Nile, and also in 

 Arabia, inhabiting sandy places, where it burrows 

 in the sand so quickly that one would imagine it 

 crept into a hole ready made. 



It would not be easy, and certainly it is not neces- 

 sary, to enumerate all the imaginary virtues of the 

 skink. They are older than the days of Pliny, and 

 for hundreds of years it kept up its character as one 

 of the most efficacious purifiers of the blood and 

 renovators of the exhausted constitution. We be- 

 lieve that the dead bodies of these reptiles were 

 boiled down into a kind of soup, a use to which, on 

 account of their gelatinous nature, many reptiles 

 which are now neglected might no doubt be turned. 

 It is a curious fact, that the name " skink," and at 

 least one part of the supposed virtue of it, by impli- 

 cation at least, are, or were till very lately, kept up 

 by the country people in Scotland. Their skink was 

 really beef soup, but it formed the stock dish at 

 nuptial feasts, occasions upon which the virtues of 

 the true skink were understood to be especially re- 

 quisite. 



Schneiders Skink (S. Schnciderii} is one of the 

 largest and most handsome of the genus. It is found 

 in Egypt, and various other parts of the East. It 

 has the tail round, and very small in the terminal 

 part, and forming nearly two-thirds of the total 

 length of the animal ; the scales on the lower jaw, 

 and also on the head, are longer than those on the 

 other part ; the upper part of the body is bright 

 yellow, mottled with olive brown ; the tail irregularly 



mottled with black and yellow ; a white band passes 

 down each side ; and the lower parts of the feet are 

 white. 



Paved SMnk (S. pavementus}. This species inha- 

 bits the same countries as the preceding, and re- 

 sembles it in many particulars ; but it is more 

 slender, and has the tail longer. The upper parts 

 are of a bright brown colour, and the under yellowish 

 white, and there are four or five white lines extend- 

 ing from the upper part of the head to the middle of 

 the tail. These lines masculate with each other, so 

 as to give the upper part a spotted appearance. 



There are some other species or varieties still, of 

 the same parts of the world, which do not appear to 

 differ from those that have been noticed in any 

 thing but size and colour, and these can hardly be 

 admitted as specific differences. There are also 

 some in the south of France, in Barbary, in the 

 south of Africa, and indeed in all the warm, dry, and 

 sandy parts of the old continent, but there is nothing 

 about them of any particular interest. We may 

 remark, in passing, that one of the places of Europe 

 upon which the smaller Sauria are most likely to be 

 met with, is the sandy tract, below Montpelier, 

 which lies between the plain of Languedoc and the sea. 



There are several in Australia, and in the isles to 

 the north and east, but they are not much known, or 

 apparently of much interest. In the West India 

 islands, too, there are reptiles which are at least very 

 similar to the skinks of the old continent. Some of 

 them are of larger dimensions ; and they have not 

 the same healing powers, at least in the estimation of 

 the black population, as those of the east. There is 

 one, called popularly the " galley-wasp," the bite of 

 which is dreaded as being exceedingly poisonous, 

 but the dread is wholly without foundation ; for, 

 instead of having a venomous bite which is speedily 

 or instantly mortal, it does not appear to be capable, 

 of inflicting any bite at all. The West Indian ones, 

 and indeed all that are found on the American con- 

 tinent or its islands, ought, in all probability, to be 

 referred to another genus. They do not frequent 

 the sand, but the holes of trees, and other places of 

 concealment ; and the one which is most dreaded by 

 the negroes is partial to humid places. There are 

 also some that have no teeth on the palate, and they 

 probably ought to form a different genus. The 

 habits of the family have been, however, wholly 

 overlooked ; and the only use of all that has been 

 said of them in detail, is to enable the keepers of 

 museums to arrange them in a particular way, and 

 to say something about each, if that can be called 

 use. 



SEPS. The name of this genus is supposed to be 

 derived from the Greek verb " to corrupt ; " but 

 what they corrupt, or how they do it, no one has 

 attempted to say. In many respects they resemble 

 the skinks, but they make a nearer approach to the 

 snakes. They are much more elongated and slender, 

 and their feet are smaller, and farther apart. Indeed, 

 they have the feet so very small and rudimental, that 

 naturalists have often been puzzled what to do with 

 them. In former times, when all the Sauria were 

 called lizards, the seps were lizard-serpents, or 

 serpent-lizards, according to the fancy of the party 

 imposing the name. In so far as their habits are 

 known, they probably resemble those snakes which 

 have rudiments of extremities within the integuments 

 more than they do the characteristic Sauria. 



