SCALED REPTILES-LIZARDS. 397 



mostly including a large number of genera. Hence it will be obvious that 

 only some of the leading types ca)i be even alluded to in this volume. 

 Although lizards are found everywhere save the polar regions, the group 

 attains its maximum development both as regards bodily size and the 

 number of forms in the tropical and sub-tropic .-if zones. They inhabit both 

 dry and moist situations, although the majority prefer the former. Most are 

 terrestrial, but many are arboreal, while a few are aquatic, one species at 

 least venturing into the open sea. The so-called flying lizard can take long 

 leaps in the air by the aid of a parachute-like expansion of skin supported by 

 the elongated ribs ; and an Australian species is stated to walk on its hind- 

 limbs like a bird. Sucker-like pads enable the geckos to climb vertical panes 

 of glass like flies ; and some of the arboreal species resemble the American 

 monkeys in having the tail endowed with prehensile power. Whereas the 

 majority lay eggs, a few bring forth their young into the world alive. In 

 spite of the popular dread attaching to the blind-worm, no lizards, with the 

 exception of the few species belonging to the American family Helodermatidce, 

 are poisonous. A few members of the order are vegetable-feeders, but the 

 great majority live on animal food, especially insects and other invertebrates. 

 The facility with which many lizards part with a considerable portion of the 

 tail when handled is a familiar fact ; but it is perhaps less well-known that 

 the missing fragment can be speedily reproduced. As regards geographical 

 distribution, the Lacertilia are widely different from the Chelonia. Thus, 

 whereas Australasian lizards are unlike those of South America, between the 

 lizards of Australia and those of India there is a most marked resemblance, 

 while the Indian forms differ decidedly from those of Africa. 



The peculiar cry of some of its Asiatic members has given rise to the name 

 by which the first family of the Lacertilia is both familiarly and scientifically 

 known. From nearly all other members of the sub-order 

 geckos are distinguished by the fact that the bodies of their Geckos. Family 

 vertebrae are cupped at both ends, instead of articulating by Gcckonidce. 

 a ball and socket, while most of them have sucking discs on 

 the extremities of the five-toed feet. In form they are depressed, and in 

 coloration dull, and whereas the head is covered with bony granules or small 

 scales, the body is generally invested with granules above and with over- 

 lapping scales beneath. In no case are the scales underlain by plates of bone. 

 There are no movable eyelids, and the opening of the ear, and. generally also 

 the pupil of the eye, is in the form of a vertical slit. The tongue, which is 

 short and devoid of a sheath at the base, may be either smooth or covered 

 with shaggy prominences. The small teeth are attached to the jaws in the 

 pleurodont manner, and in many cases the tail is more or less distinctly 

 prehensile, although in some instances it is rudimental. Most numerous in 

 the Oriental and Australasian countries, the geckos range over all the warmer 

 parts of the world, and present a considerable number of generic modifica- 

 tions. Among these the genus Ptyodactylns is familiar to travellers in 

 Palestine in the form of the little lobe-footed gecko. In common with its 

 immediate kindred, this species has the toes expanded into circular lobes, 

 upon the under surface of which are two rows of plates. llemidactylus, as 

 represented by the little Turkish gecko, is an allied genus, ranging over all 

 the warmer parts of the world except Australasia, with dilated toes terminating 

 in compressed claws, of which the tips are free. Very aberrant is the single 

 and considerably larger species of the Oriental genus Ptychozoum, in which 

 the skin of the flanks forms a large expansion, while there is also a fringe of 



