16 



LlZABDS.- 



-REPTILES.- 



-Slender-tosgued Lizards. 



" They run with such extraordinary rapidity, that it is 

 almost impossible for the eye to follow them in their 

 flight. The instant they are discovered, they seek a 

 place of concealment, and that they generally find in 

 the loose sand which is commonly found accumulated 

 under the shrubs with which the district is furnished. 

 In this sand they burrow with amazing rapidity, and it 

 reqiiires an e.xperienced eye to trace their course in it, 

 though that is seldom far below the surface." — 



Several other species are natives of South America. 

 These are the Buckler-backs {Gerrhonoti).* They 

 have the body of an elongate, spindle-sliaped form, 

 with very short legs, no true neck, and a long round 

 tail, gradually becoming more slender as it ajiproaches 

 the extremity. 



Of the habits of these animals little is known; but 

 they lead on to another group of lizards, wliich are 

 characterized by having still more elongate and slender 

 bodies and tails, and either only two legs, which are 

 quite rurlimentary, or none at all. Their genera! 

 appearance, in consequence, is that of a seqient, and 

 indeed with that order they used formerly to be classed. 

 These are the Falsk-feet (Pseudopiis) and the Glass- 

 SiNAKF, (Ophiaanrut:). 



THE FAISE-FOOT or SniXTOPUSlK {Pseiidnpi/s 

 Palassli) — Plate 1, fig. 3 — is a native of Europe, and 

 is about three feet long. Cuvier placed it among 

 the serpents ; and as Dumeril and Bibron remark, if we 

 consider only the form of the body, which is exceedingly 

 long, and almost destitute of feet, this animal ought 

 not to take its place amongst Saurian Eeptiles. If we 

 attentively observe the ensemble of its organization, 

 however, both internally and externally, it may be said 

 to be only a Buckler-back, or Gerrhonote, witliout feet. 

 The tongue, teeth, nostrils, ears, and scales of the 

 body, constitute it tnily Saurian. Externally fJiere is 

 not the slightest appearance of fore-feet, but internally 

 we find them represented by a bony tubercle on each 

 side of the breast-bone. The hinder-feet are in the 

 form of two very .short appcndiiges, mere vestiges of 

 legs. It lias no distinct neck, and the tail has the 

 same form as the body, but is at least a third longer. 

 In the adult, the upper jiarts of the body are of a chest- 

 nut colour, picked off with black ; but in the yoiujg 

 animal the neck and back are banded with cross bars 

 ot a brown colour on a grey gi-ound. The False-foot 

 is a native of the Crimea, Istria, the Morea, and the 

 southern districts of Siberia. It was first described by 

 the celebrated Pallas, who found it in the sandy desert 

 of Naryn, near the river Volga. The natives of the 

 districts where it abounds, give it the name of S/iclto- 

 pdslk. It dwells in jireference in the shady valleys 

 where grass grows abiuidantly, and where it can pro- 

 cure its favourite foo<l, which consists of small lizards 

 and insects. It is timid and harndess, conceals itself 

 amongst the tangled brushwood, and flies when any 

 one approaches it. By tlie French naturalists engaged 

 in the " Scientific Exjirdition to the Morea," thisrepdle 

 was found in the Peloponnesus. Being unknown to 

 Ihem at first, they supposed it to belong to the serpent 

 order, and the first individual which was seen by them, 



* From I he two Greek words, gerron {y'.nn), a buckler, ami 

 »kito8 If^-oi), llie back. 



while basking in the vernal sun, after emerging from 

 its winter retreat, was instantly killed with the butt-end 

 of their guns. Tliey were surprised to find it destitute 

 of fangs, and not poisonous. Many other specimens 

 were taken after that, and kept alive in rooms, their 

 quiet inoffensive disposition rendering them easily 

 reconciled to such a degree of captivity. They were 

 fed upon hard-boiled eggs, but, upon one occasion, one 

 of the captives obtained access to a nest of young 

 birds, which it soon swallowed up. 



THE GLASS-SNAKE {Ophimurus rcntralis) is a 

 native of North America, and is about eighteen inches 

 long, the tail being about three times longer than its 

 body. It is quite destitute of feet, for the body does 

 not even offer the slightest vestiges of the hinder feet 

 seen in the Slieltopusik. AVith the head of a lizard, it 

 has a body exactly resembling that of a seqient ; but 

 still in its organization it is a true Saurian. The upper 

 part is of a grecriish-brown colour, regularly and ele- 

 gantly marked with numerous spots and streaks of 

 yellow. Catesby, in his " Natural History of Caro- 

 lina," was the fir.st who gave us any account of this 

 singular reptile, and he considered it as a true serpent. 

 " The skin," he says, " is very smooth and shining, 

 and of a different structure from that of other serpents. 

 A small blow with a stick will cause the body to sepa- 

 rate, not only at the place stnick, but at two or thi-ee 

 other places; the muscles being articulated in a singu- 

 lar manner, quite through to the Tertebra>. They are 

 generally said to be harmless. They appear earlier in 

 the spring than any other serpent, and are numerous in 

 the sandy woods of Virginia and Carolina." It is a 

 harmless and timid animal, and feeds upon insects, 

 small reptiles, frogs, &c. The extreme brittlcncss of its 

 tail has long been well known, and this, with its shining 

 appearance, has procured for it its peculiar name. 

 Bartram, in his " Travels in North America," has also 

 described this reptile as he met with it in Carolina. 

 " Stopping again at a natural shrubbery," he says, " on 

 turning my eyes to some flowering shrubs, I observed 

 near my feet the surprising Glass-.snake {Angnis 

 fragilis). It seems as innocent and harmless as a 

 worm. It is, when full-grown, two and a half feet in 

 length, and three-fourths of an inch in thickness ; the 

 abdomen or body part is remarkably short, and it 

 seems to be all tail, whicli, though long, gi-adually 

 attenuates to its extremity, yet not small and slender 

 as in Switch-snakes. The colour and texture of the 

 whole animal is exactly like bhiish-green glass, which, 

 together with its fragility, almost persuades a stranger 

 that it is in reality that brittle substance ; but it is 

 only the tail part that breaks off, which it does like 

 glass, by a very gentle stroke from a slender switch. 

 Though it is quick and nimble in twisting about, yet it 

 cannot run fast from one, but quickly secretes itself at 

 the bottom of the grass, or under leaves. It is a vul- 

 gar fable," he adds, " that it is able to repair itself 

 after being broken into several pieces ; which pieces, 

 common report saj'S, by a power or faculty in the 

 animal, voluntarily approach each other, join, and heal 

 again." 



Following the family of Cordyles {Zonuridai), there 

 succeeds, in the arrangement of Dr. Gray, a scries of 



