GYMNOPHTHALMID.E ; AMPHISB^NIDJE ; TYPHLOPIDJE. 565 



externally, but may be traced by careful dissection beneath the 

 skin. The Slow-worm frequents copses, orchards, old moulder- 

 ing walls, and banks, where it delights to bask in the sun ; it is 

 a sluggish, timid creature ; and its food consists chiefly of worms 

 and slugs. Its whole body is as brittle as the tail of the Vivi- 

 parous Lizard; breaking asunder on the slightest attempt to 

 bend it, or on a trifling blow, in consequence (as it would seem) 

 of the violent contraction of the muscles induced by alarm. 



503. In the family of GTYMNOPHTHALMID^E, the approach to 

 the Serpents is particularly evident ; for not only do we find 

 the body very elongated and snake-like, and the limbs either 

 rudimentary or entirely wanting, but the eyes are destitute of 

 eye-lids, and simply covered, as in the Snakes, with a trans- 

 parent portion of the skin. The scales are of the same nature 

 as those of the Skinks. The majority of the species are found 

 in Australia, but one inhabits Hungary and the East of Europe, 

 and another is a native of America. Two other small families, 

 which still more curiously connect the Lizards with the Snakes, 

 remain to be noticed. The first of these is the family of the 

 AMPHISB^ENIDJE, cylindrical, worm-like creatures, with the tail 

 excessively short and rounded ; so that as their eyes are very 

 small, and sometimes hidden by the skin, the animals look 

 almost as if they had a head at both ends. The skin is not 

 scaly, but appears to be divided into a quantity of quadrangular 

 plates by transverse and longitudinal furrows, which gives the 

 animals the appearance of being ringed, like Worms. Al- 

 though the limbs are generally quite deficient, one Mexican 

 species, the Chirotes, has a pair of very small anterior mem- 

 bers. Most of the Amphisboenas live in the tropical parts of 

 America, but one species is found in the South of Europe and 

 North of Africa. They bore into soft earth, like worms, working 

 their way with considerable despatch ; and feed upon worms and 

 insects, especially Ants and White Ants. The TYPHLOPIDJE re- 

 semble the Amphisbscnas in some respects, especially in the worm- 

 like form of the body, and the division of its surface into quadran- 

 gular plates by transverse and longitudinal depressed lines. They 

 differ from them and from all other Reptiles, however, in only 



