THE BRITISH REPTILES. Ill 



usually from ten to a dozen of them at a time, about an inch and a half 

 long, white in colour, with a black streak down the middle of the back 

 and a dark streak along each side. The food consists of small slugs, 

 insects, and worms, the slugs being taken down head foremost, the 

 worms being bitten into and sucked before they are swallowed. The 

 Slow-worm feeds during the daytime, and at night shelters under 

 stones and moss, or in a burrow of its own making, such as that in 

 which, in company with others, it spends the winter. Though not 

 met with in Iceland and Ireland, it ranges from Lapland to Western 

 Asia and Algeria, and is still to be found on most of our wild, open 

 commons away from water. 



Anguis is not the only legless genus of lizards, nor are all the 

 members of the same family without legs, for Gerrhonotus has both 

 pairs well developed, and Pseudopus (the glass snakes) though with- 

 out the front pair, has the hind pair represented by spikes. The 

 Aniellidae and Anelytropidae are quite legless ; the Dibamidae and 

 Pygopodidae have no front legs and only a pair of flaps where the 

 hind ones ought to be. The Amphisbaenidse have no legs, except in 

 Chirotes, which has a short front pair with four digits. In the skinks 

 (Scincidas) almost every stage is represented, some being without 

 fore legs, some without hind legs, some with one, two, three, four, 

 or five digits, and some with mere conical stumps and no digits 

 whatever. 



Chelone. Plate xxvii. THECOPHORA. 



73. imbricata, HAWKSBILL TURTLE. Shell covered with horny 

 plates ; limbs paddle-shaped. 



This is the turtle from which comes our tortoiseshell. It appears 

 in the British list mainly owing to an unfortunate vagrant that was 

 caught in the Severn, and lived for some months in Dr. Turton's 

 father's fish-pond. When young the shell is serrated all round, but 

 in time the front half becomes smooth. The shields overlap at first, 

 but cease to do so in old age ; the head is small and prominent, 

 with the upper jaw curved over the lower so as to form a hooked 

 beak ; all the flippers have two claws. The shields and scales are 

 dark brown with yellow edges. This turtle is less than a yard long. 

 Unlike the only other member of the genus C. mydas, the green 

 turtle it is entirely carnivorous and by no means wholesome. 



Coronella. Plate xxix. OPHIDIA. 



80. Ittvis, SMOOTH SN^KE. Scales smooth ; head short and not 



markedly distinct from neck. A dark stripe through 

 the eye. 



The Smooth Snake is very local in Britain, it having been found 

 as yet only in Hampshire, Dorsetshire, and, doubtfully, in south- 

 western Surrey. It has teeth in both jaws, but no poison fangs. 

 The lower maxillary teeth are equal in size, but those in the upper 

 maxillary are larger at the back than in front, and do not exceed 

 twenty in number. The rostral shield is as deep as it is broad, and is 

 produced between the internasals. There are seven or eight labial 

 plates, the third and fourth of which extend to the eye ; the four 



