THE GERRHOSAURUS. 



47 



effectual resistance to the force applied from behind, that the tail breaks off from the 

 body before the reptile is secured." 



, in Dr. Smith's work, the description of the different varieties occupy nearly five 

 quarto page of letterpress, it is evidently impossible to give more than a general de- 

 scription in this volume. Suffice it to say, that in one variety, found on the Table 

 Mountain and about Cape Town, the color is ochry yellow above banded with dark 

 brown ; in another, which inhabits the rocks about Algoa Bay, it is yellow, with 

 bold black bars along the back ; another, which lives on the banks of the Orange River, 

 is brown above, warming into bright chestnut in the male and olive-green mottled with 

 dusky black in the female ; and a fourth variety, which is found in the high mountain- 

 ous regions about Natal, is bright green, with an olive-green stripe and short bars of 

 the same tint across the back. The tail is also banded with two shades of green, one a 

 deep olive, and the other having a much yellower hue. The Female of this variety is with- 

 out the bands, and is only mottled with dark olive and spotted with the same hue along 

 the sides. The length of the False (Jordyle is about eighteen inches. 



ItM&^M- 



ROUGH-SCALED CORDYLE. Zoaurua Cordylus. FALSE CORUVLE.-Pseudocordylus mlcrolepldotu*. 



A SMALL group of reptiles is collected under the generic title of Gerrhosauri, or 

 Basket-Lizards, because the arrangement of their scales and coloring has an effect as 

 if the body had been covered with delicate wicker-work, such as is employed to protect 

 glass flasks from injury. 



These Lizards are natives of Southern Africa, where they are far from uncommon. 

 They are all rather pretty in form and coloring, but the most pleasing in general ap- 

 pearance is BIBRON'S GERRHOSAURUS (Gerrhosaurtts Bibrbni). This animal is found 

 near the Orange River, and may be seen slipping about among the rocky sides of the 

 dark ravines that are so plentiful in that neighborhood. It is a very shy and timid 

 creature, and if it fancies itself watched by an unfriendly eye, or suspects the least 

 shadow of danger, it quietly glides under a heap of dead wood and dried leaves which 

 collect in abundance in such localities, and will not venture out again until it is toler- 

 ably sure that the danger has passed away. 



