294 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



It is evident that the luminous rays belonging to the blue-violet region of the spectrum act 

 directly upon the contractile matter of the corpuscles, causing them to move and approach the 

 surface of the skin.* 



SUB-ORDER AMPHISByENOIDA. 



The White Amphisbsena,t which may be considered the type of this remarkable group, is a 

 snake-like animal, without arms or legs, and these the natives suppose it was born with and has 

 lost. The word is from the Greek a/j.^ifffiaiva, which means an animal that can walk in both direc- 

 tions, and the reptiles can move forwards or backwards with their very worm-like bodies. They 

 are not Snakes, however, but really belong to the Lacertilia. 



The White Amphisbsena, or Ibijara, is a Brazilian kind, and has the cylindrical worm-like 

 body of the group, being about as thick as one's finger, the head and tail not being distinguished 



WHITE AMPiriSB.'EXA. 



readily by careless and frightened observers. It grows to the length of one foot six inches, or to 

 one foot nine inches, the tail, or that round part behind the vent, being from an inch and a half to 

 two inches only in length. On looking at the body, a great number of rings of hard, glassy-looking 

 skin, made to look scale-like by markings in regular longitudinal lines, are seen. The result of the 

 markings and disposition in rings is to produce a mosaic of quadrangular false scales, and they 

 are very equal in size ; and after skin-shedding has taken place are glossy and rich in tint. The 

 mouth is small, the muzzle is round, and the head is rather flat on the top, and there are two 

 large separated nasal plates and two pairs of frontal plates behind them. The eye is very small, 

 and covered with thin skin, and the limbs are deficient. Burrowing easily in the ground and 

 in ants' nests, the Amphisbfena preys on small things, and has a short thick tongue without a 

 sheath. The genus Blanus has a more worm-like species than Amphisbsena. 



One of this sub-order has a very small pair of arms with four digits, situated just behind the 

 head, but there are no legs. This is called Chirotes canaliculatus, and is about eight to ten inches 

 in length, and as thick as the little fingei*. It appears to burrow, and to live on insects in its worm- 

 like life. In these Amphisbsenoida the vertebrae are proccelous, and there is no sacrum, and all the 

 vertebrae in front of the tail, except the one or two nearest the skull, have ribs. Their internal 

 anatomy is more like that of the Chamaeleons than any other group. 



SUB-ORDER BREVILINGUES. THE SCINCOID^ AND ZONURID^E. 



Some of these might readily be taken for Lizards, and others for Snakes, so variable is the 

 shape. They are a harmless set of beings, some having, however, undeservedly very bad reputations. 



* It is a point of some importance to recognise that the hemispheres of the brain, by the intervention of the involuntary 

 (reflex) nerves, govern the colour-deciding nerve those which move the corpuscles and it would appear that this in- 

 voluntary action relates to what is seen by the eye of the opposite side of the body. 



t 1 Amphisbcena alba. 



