206 



CLASS REPTILIA, 



spots only on the flanks. The belly is of a very clear bluish 

 green. The size is from eighteen to twenty inches. 



Daudin has in a very unaccountable manner made this 

 saurian a native of the temperate climates of Germany, Hun- 

 gary, and Prussia. This is a mistake, for as our author 

 has remarked, it is an inhabitant of America. 



We must pass with brevity over many of the numerous 

 sub-divisions of our author, and even over some of them in 

 silence. The truth is, that when we come to treat in detail con- 

 cerning the reptile tribes, there is an abundant scantiness of that 

 sort of information concerning them which would prove interest- 

 ing to the majority of readers. However useful and curious 

 may be the investigation of their specific characters, it must be 

 owned that to the many it is dry and repulsive. It is caviare 

 to the general. It is, however, occasionally necessary for us 

 to supply the deficiencies of the text in this way, which must 

 be our apology for now and then deviating into matter merely 

 of a descriptive kind. When the characters are of impor- 

 tance, and but superficially treated of in the " Regne Ani- 

 mal," the object of which work was to avoid amplification in 

 this way, it would be unpardonable to omit all mention of 

 them. This is peculiarly the case with generic characters, 

 which are of the highest importance in classification. Nor 

 can they always be clearly conceived, or properly impressed 

 upon the mind, by a very brief description. Accordingly to 

 those have we chiefly confined our attention, and to the notice 

 of such species as are not described in the text, when they 

 involve any interest or importance. 



Returning from this, perhaps not wholly irrelevant di- 

 gression, we shall now proceed to the consideration of the 

 remaining genera of the saurian order, omitting to dwell on 

 its minor subdivisions. 



The Lizards proper form the second genus of the great 

 Lacertian family. The following is an enumeration of their 



