10 REPTILE GALLERY. 



specimens and a skeleton are exhibited. All their external cha- 

 racters testify to their mode of life; they are burrowing animals, 

 passing the whole of their existence under ground in loose soil, 

 sand, or ant-heaps. The skin is not protected by either scales or 

 scutes, but divided by circular and longitudinal folds into quad- 

 rangular segments arranged in rings. The colour of the skin is 

 either whitish, reddish, or greyish, without any ornamentation. 

 Legs are absent (with the exception of the genus Chirotes, in which 

 a pair of very short fore legs are developed). The head and tail 

 are both short; and the superficial similarity of the two extremities 

 in some of the species has led to the belief that they could progress 

 backwards and forwards with equal facility. Their eyes are quite 

 rudimentary, hidden below the skin ; ear-openings are likewise 

 absent. The Amphisbsenians are inhabitants of hot countries — 

 Africa, America, and the countries round the Mediterranean. 

 About 50 different species are known. 



Lizards proper (Lacertidte) are confined to the Old World, and 

 found in Europe, Asia, and Africa. They seldom reach a length 

 of eighteen inches (Lacerta ocellata), and feed on small animals 

 only, insects and worms being the principal diet of most kinds of 

 Lizards. The Common British Lizard is Lacerta vivipara; the 

 Sand Lizard (L. agilis) and Green Lizard {L. viridis) being more 

 locally distributed in the Southern Counties and the Channel 

 Islands, but very abundant in various parts of the continent of 

 Europe. 



The Anguidce include limbed as well as limbless forms ; of 

 the latter the Slow worm or Blindworm [Anguis fr agilis), common 

 in Great Britain, is the best known. The Glass Snake, or Sheito- 

 pusik (Pseudopus pallasii), common in South-eastern Europe and 

 Western Asia, is another example. 



The Scincidce or Skinks, recognizable by their round imbricate 

 scales, also include forms in which the limbs are rudimentary 

 or absent. The largest forms of this family are AustraliaD, 

 as Tiliqua gig as and nigrolutea, and Trachydosaurus, the last 

 remarkable for their rough scales and short tail, somewhat re- 

 sembling the cone of a fir-tree. A very curiously shaped form, 

 also from Australia, is Egernia stokesii, with its short conical 

 tail armed with dagger-pointed spinous scales. 



