REPTILES. 403 



mg down these monsters. It further preys upon the young which hatch 

 from the eggs that escape its search. 



Other species occur in the cast, some attaining a considerable size. 

 Among these is the water-lizard of India, four feet long, which spends 

 a considerable part of its time in the water, but still wanders about con- 

 siderably in the lowlands, burrowing about in its search for insects, 

 and especially ants. Larger and still more aquatic is the huge lizard 

 of Ceylon, which reaches a length of six feet, and which is the subject 

 of much superstition and fear on the part of the Cinghalese. It is a strong 

 animal, and, according to Haeckel, a blow from its powerful tail, clad 

 in plate armor, often inflicts a dangerous wound, or even breaks a 

 man's leg. 



We must not forget our little striped lizard of the eastern United 

 States, a pretty brown species, marked on the back with six longitudinal 

 yellow lines; beneath it is a silvery blue. It but rarely occurs north of 

 Virginia, but south and west of that state it is abundant, making its 

 appearance in a timid manner about the close of the day. It reaches a 

 length, tail included, of about ten inches. 



There are a number of lizards which differ greatly in their structure, 

 but which, nevertheless, we may be permitted to group together on account 

 of a most marked external feature. In these forms we notice first a 

 tendency to a disappearance of the limbs. In the skinks this is not 

 very marked ; but in the other forms we notice more and more of a dis- 

 proportion between body and limbs, which reaches its extreme in the 

 Amphisbamas. 



Most of the skinks are tropical, lazy forms, whose chief delight is to 

 bask all clay in the sun. At times, however, they start up, impelled by 

 hunger, and hunt for insects and other small animals for food. To-day 

 there is but little interest concerning them ; not so a few hundred years 

 ago. The time once was when the more disgusting an animal, or indeed, 

 any object, was, the more highly it was esteemed as a remedial agent ; 

 and in those days the dried and powdered skink was deemed a sure specific 

 for a long list of human ailments. To some of the skinks, on the other 

 hand, most diabolical powers were attributed, and in their qualities they 

 were scarcely surpassed by the basilisk. 



We have in the United States about a dozen skinks, but to these there 

 has never been attributed any such qualities as to those of the Old World ; 

 although of course there are persons who regard them as poisonous, just as 

 they do any and every other reptile. 



The next form to be mentioned in this descending scale is the curious 

 Mexican Chirotes, which in everything resembles a snake, except that just 



