The Zoologist — May, 18(i9. 1649 



Collected Ohservalions on British Reptiles. 



By Edward Nkwman. 



(Continued from S. S. 1629.) 



Older III. Saurians (Sauria) continued. 



Family Scincoide.e. 



" The head is covered by horny, thin angular plates, with distinct 

 regular sutures; the neck of the same thickness with the breast; the 

 rest of the body and the limbs everywhere are clothed with imbricated 

 scutes, generally having their free margins slightly rounded and 

 arranged in the form of a quicunx ; back rounded, without crests or 

 spines: belly cylindrical; no furrow along the sides; tongue free, 

 not generally notched at the tip, covered with papilla in whole or in 

 part." — Clermont. 



The Blind-worm or Slow-worm [Anguis fragilis). 



Has no palate teeth ; the maxillary teeth are rather long and very 

 slender, sharp-pointed, and slightly bent backwards towards the 

 throat ; the tongue is rather fleshy, as compared with that of true 

 lizards it is slightly notched at the tip : the nostrils are lateral and the 

 eyelids imbricated with scutes ; the ears are simple apertures, and 

 even these are almost entirely concealed by the imbricated scutes. 

 The body is slightly tetragonal, but unless examined with the express 

 purpose of observing this, appears uniformly cylindrical ; the nose is 

 obtuse ; the bones of the head are solid and united, and though the 

 swallow is very small, the neck exhibits scarcely any restriction ; 

 there are no legs, but aborted leg-bones are to be found beneath the 

 scutes ; the body very gradually decreases in size to the extremity, 

 which is blunt ; there is no apparent division between body and tail. 

 The colour is grayish brown with a slightly silvery iridescence ; there 

 is a narrow dark brown raedio-dorsal stripe commencing on the fore- 

 head and continued to the caudal extremity ; the sides are generally 

 darker than the back, and the belly is bluish black with paler reticu- 

 lations : the length is generally rather less than a foot. The young 

 are produced alive, and usually six or eight at a birth. The food 

 consists principally, if not entirely, of the small garden slug [Umax 

 agrestis), and the larvs of Lepidoptera. This animal becomes per- 

 fectly reconciled to captivity in a few days, and will readily take a 

 small slug if offered it even on the day after being captured : the slug 



second series — VOL. IV. Y 



