LIZARDS. 427; 



new surroundings, and not break off its tail on the apprehension of danger ; a piece 

 of self-mutilation which is often resorted to, in out-door life, as a means of escape. 

 The animal is beautifully colored with red scales edged with white, and ornamented 

 along the sides with stripes of dusky brown. The adults seldom exceed the length of 

 twelve inches. 



Though slow and deliberate in its movements, there is no reason for calling this 

 lizard a ' blind-worm.' The eyes are well developed and are indispensable to an 

 animal of insectivorous diet. The young, which are very hardy, are brought forth 

 alive, and to the number of six or eight. 



Allied to Anguis is the Ophiodes of Brazil, an animal having the hind limbs rep- 

 resented by a pair of short, flattened, undivided, and pointed appendages, springing 

 from each side of the abdomen, and with eyes protected by movable lids. The genus 

 Jiarisia is found in Lower California and Mexico. It is peculiar in having no single 

 frontal plate. £. oUvaceus is dark olive green, with bars of dusky brown, and 

 beneath greenish white. Gerrhonotus is represented in the more western portions of 

 the country by several species, of which G. nobilis, inhabiting New Mexico and 

 Arizona, is, though of small size, one of the most beautiful. The body is slender 

 and elegant, supported by graceful limbs, and of a clear olive color. It is more or 

 less spotted with black, and crossed, from the occiput to the tail, by nine or ten trans- 

 verse, brown bands. G. principis, the Oregon lizard, has been captured in the Pacific 

 region, though it is rare. G. multicarinatus, the many-keeled lizard, is perhaps the 

 most abundant species. It is a slender and graceful animal, inhabiting the Pacific 

 and Lower California regions, and is characterized by having sixteen longitudinal rows 

 of strongly carinated scales extending along the back. The color is yellowish green, 

 irregularly banded with nai-row, brownish lines. 



We now come to one of the most interesting of American lizards, the Opheo- 

 saurus ventralis, inhabiting the warmer portions of the United States, east of the Mis- 

 sissippi and south of the Ohio River. It chooses the drier localities, where it often 

 burrows into the soil, spending much of its time underground, and about the roots 

 of old trees. It is said to be quite frequently brought to light by those digging sweet 

 potatoes. Though destitute of feet, this peculiar lizard is able, by its serpentine 

 movements, to retreat, on being disturbed, with considerable swiftness, and is seldom 

 captured without injury; for the tail, the vertebriB of which are but poorly articu- 

 lated, is so brittle as to break off at the slightest blow. This fragility has given the 

 animal the popular name of ' glass-snake.' In coloring it is, above, of a yellowish 

 green shade, lined with black. Below it is yellow. The snout is long and pointed, 

 the ear-pits large, the eyelids well developed, and each flank is provided with what 

 is .ordinarily a deep groove, but which, on the animal's swallowing some large object, 

 appears as a tract of elastic skin, the rigid skin of the body generally being incapable 

 of expansion. The tail is cylindrical and elongate, being about twice the length of 

 the body. The popular belief that the tail, when broken from the body finally becomes 

 attached again, is explained by the fact that a new one soon grows out. 



The family Aniellid^, including the Californian genus Anidla, is probably 

 degraded from the Anguidse. Anidla is destitute of limbs. The nasal shield is 

 so bent at its lower edge as to form a part of the labial rnargin, and inside of it is the 

 labial shield proper. A. pulchra is a most graceful and elegant creature, smooth and 

 glossy, and with the upper portions ornamented with narrow, brown, zigzag lines, pass- 

 ing the length of the body. 



