£14 CLASS REPTILIA. 



Hones proper are distinguished by not having under the 

 thighs a line of very large pores. They are also easily dis- 

 tinguished from the cameleons, which have the toes oppos- 

 able ; from the agamae, the iguanas, the lizards, the anolis, 

 the dragons, and the geckos, none of which have the spiny 

 tail. 



Our author, as we have seen, admits of but one species 

 among the stelliones proper. This is the Stellio of the Le- 

 vant (Stellio vulgaris, Daudin. Lacerta Stellio, Linnaeus. 

 C or dylus Stellio, Lauren ti). In form, this reptile has the 

 head comparatively bulky ; a little flatted, triangular, very 

 wide, callous, and rough on the sides of the occiput. The 

 tympanum is round, wide, and but little sunk in. The jaws 

 are cleft as far as its level, and bordered with two or three 

 parallel ranks of narrow, smooth, and nearly squared scales. 

 The nostrils are round, and but moderately projecting. The eyes 

 are behind over the cheeks ; there are seventeen teeth on each 

 side of the upper jaw ; twenty-two on each side of the lower. 

 The tail is longer than the body, and composed of seventy 

 spinous verticillae ; the anus is transversal ; there are five 

 toes on all the feet ; and the nails are small and crooked. 



This saurian usually attains to the length of about a 

 foot. 



It is very common throughout all the Levant, and parti- 

 cularly in the islands of the Archipelago, in Egypt, and in 

 Syria. It is also met with, they say, at the Cape of Good 

 Hope. It appears to live in preference under the ruins of 

 old edifices, amid heaps of stones, in the clefts of rocks, and 

 in sorts of burrows, which it has the art and industry to exca- 

 vate for itself. 



It is extremely agile in all its movements, and feeds upon 

 the insects which flutter over the sand. 



The Stellio of the Levant, which the modern Greeks call 

 KotTx.oph'\oc, and the Arabs Hardim, does not appear to be 



