10 REPTILE GALLERY. 



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, sometimes marbled with black. 

 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 ; they are often described 

 as " Two-headed Snakes." 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. 



18.] Lizards proper {Lacertida) are confined to the Old World, and 

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

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

 insects and worms being the principal diet, but a few, like the small 

 Lizards of Madeira, have taken to a vegetable diet, and cause some 

 injury to grapes and other soft fruit. 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. 



18.] The Anguidce include limbed as well as limbless forms ; of 

 the latter the Slowworm or Blindworm [Anguis fragilis), common 

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

 pusik {Pseudopus pallasii or Ophisaurus apus), common in South- 

 eastern Europe and Western Asia, is another example. 



18.] The Scincidcs 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 Australian, 

 as Tiliqua gigas 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. 



