146 TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



one on either side of the body. Another allied Australian 

 lizard has no indication whatever of limbs. The same 

 is the case ^Yith the amphisbsena, a lizard the best known 

 form of which is found throughout South America, where 

 it burrows like an earthworm and has all the habits of the 

 worm-like snakes. A nearly related kind, however, 

 which is found in California and Mexico, though it has 

 no hinder limbs, has a very small pair of fore-limbsj 

 which, small as they seem, are very well formed, with 

 minute toes. It is known as the Chirotes. 



A lizard which in England is considered popularly to 

 be a snake, is that known as the blind worm, which is 

 spread throughout Europe, northern Asia, and northern 

 Africa. jSTot only is it called a snake, but an adder, and 

 sometimes a deaf adder. It is popularly reported as being 

 deadly poison. In vain have we lectured farm labourers 

 and even farmers on the essentially harmless and (as a 

 slug and grub eater) beneficent natuio of this small 

 reptile. None the less have we come again and again on 

 its mutilated form, ruthlessly cut in two, with a spade. 



It is really a most gentle and inoffensive animal, 

 which, even when roughly handled, rarely attempts to 

 bite, while if the attempt be made, its teeth are so small, 

 one is none the worse for it. AVhat may help to account 

 for the mistaken opinion that it is a kind of viper is 

 the fact that, like that animal (but most unlike other 

 lizards), it brings forth its young alive. In feeding, when 

 it has seized a slug not too large for it, it passes it 

 through its jaws till it can get one end of the slug in 

 its mouth, when it proceeds to swallow it. Its jaws 

 are like those of all lizards, not distendable, so that it 

 cannot swallow either frogs or mice. 



Though the belief that it is poisonous is erroneous, 

 and though till quite lately all lizards were supposed 



