562 LACERTAE 



whole shape of the creature, the scales, and the digits are 

 adapted to burrowing and moving quickly through the loose 

 sand. The general colour is yellowish or brownish above, each 

 scale with small brown and whitish spots ; the under parts are 

 uniform whitish. The young are quite beautiful, being uniform 

 pale salmon-coloured above, silvery white below. When a little 

 older, yellow spots appear on the flanks and grey bands across 

 the back. These Skinks live in the absolutely dry reddish- 

 yellow sand of the desert, in which they may almost be said to 

 swim about, so swift and easy are their movements. They live 



Fig. 146. — Cyclodus gigas. x ^. 



on insects, while in their turn they are eaten by snakes, and above 

 all by the Varanus lizards. 



Of Mahuia with about forty species, in the whole of Africa, 

 Southern Asia, and in Tropical America, we mention only M. 

 {Eitj]}r &])&&) mttata, on account of its partly semi-aquatic life, a 

 very rare condition among Scincidae. This creature, about 

 7 inches long when full grown, frequents damp localities in 

 Tunis and Algeria, where the French call it " Poisson de sable.'' 

 It often sits on the floating leaves of Nymj)haea alba, and dives 

 into the water in order to escape. Its proper element is, how- 

 ever, the sand, and for the night it retires under stones. The 

 general colour is olive brown with a lighter vertebral band and 

 two narrow whitish lines on each side, sometimes edged with 

 black. The under parts are yellowish or greenish white. 



Ghalcides s. Sei^s s. Gongylus, of the Mediterranean countries 



