GECKOS, LIZARDS, AND CHAMELEONS. 91 



of surprising power. The burrowing lizards, 

 strangely enough, resemble instead the non- 

 burrowing snakes. 



The most typical skink, perhaps, is the species 

 known as the Common Skink (Scincus officinalis), 

 a thick-set, short-tailed lizard clothed in peculiarly 

 large, smooth, overlapping scales resembling those 

 of fishes, and forming an admirable covering for 

 burrowing purposes. The limbs in this species 

 are short but well developed and possess the 

 normal number of toes. It is a small animal, 

 not exceeding four inches in length, and in the 

 olden time was much esteemed in medicine, 

 being regarded as a cure for every ill that flesh 

 is heir to. Even to-day it is greatly esteemed, 

 both for its healing powers which are imaginary 

 and as an article of food, by the Arabs. Con- 

 trasting conspicuously with this species, stands 

 the Australian Stump-tailed Lizard (Trachysaurus 

 rugosus\ inasmuch as the body of this animal, 

 which is about fourteen inches long, is clothed 

 in a dense armour of bony nodules encased in 

 horny scales, that give the body the appearance 

 of a pine cone. Living in a region widely remote 

 from that of the Common Skink, it may well be 

 that the conditions of life demand a more durable 

 armour; be this as may be, we know nothing 

 at present which will account for the wide differ- 

 ences in the covering of the two species. Its 

 chief food consists in worms and insects, varied 

 by fruit and vegetables. Both the present and 

 the foregoing species possess four limbs bearing 

 the normal number of toes. 



Let us turn now to the other members of the 



