.SCALED REPTILES— CHAMELEONS. 411 



and lethargic, as if existence were somewhat of a bore, and although its chief 

 food is of an animal nature, it is stated also to consume vegetable substances. 

 Certain worm-like burrowing skinks from the tropical and sub-tropical 

 regions of the globe are degraded types, regarded as constituting two families 

 by themselves. In both these families — the Anelytro2ndce and the Dibamidce 

 ;— the degradation shows itself not only in the loss of limbs, but likewise in 

 the simplification of the skull, which has lost all its lateral arches ; while the 

 eyes are buried beneath tlie skin, and the ears have no external opening. In 

 the first family — which contains the Mexican genus A'lielytrojisis and the 

 African Feylinia and TyjMosaurus—the bony plates beneath the_ skin are 

 retained, but the two premaxillse have coalesced into a single bone. On the 

 other hand, in the Dibamidce the preraaxillse remain distinct, but the bony 

 plates in the skin have disappeared. This second family is represented only 

 by the genus Dibamiis, of which one species ranges from the Moluccas through 

 Celebes to New Guinea, while the second is restricted to the Nicobar Islands. 



Sub-Order II.-^Rhiptoglossa. 



Chameleons. 



In their slow and deliberate movements, as well as by their peculiar revolv- 

 ing eyes and generally grotesque appearance; chamteleons suggest the idea 

 tliat they do not properly belong to the present order of things, but are sur- 

 vivors from some ancient epoch in the earth's history, when strange and 

 uncouth monsters were to the fore. Nevertheless, we have no evidence that 

 such is really the case, since such fossil chamseleons as are known belong to a 

 comparatively late era, and the extreme specialisation of these strange crea- 

 tures is, perhaps, rather in favour of their modern origin. Although in 

 popular language chamaeleons come under the designation of lizards, they are 

 structurally so different from the Lacertilia that there can be no hesitation in 

 regarding them as the representatives of a distinct sub-order. Apart from 

 the peculiarities of their external appearance, they are broadly distinguished 

 from lizards by the conformation of the tongue. Anyone who has seen a 

 tame chamseleon harpoon a fly at a distance of Iialf a dozen inches from its 

 lips, will not readily forget the appearance of the long extensile, worm-like 

 organ which is shot out from the mouth with the speed of an arrow, to be 

 withdrawn immediately after with the hapless victim adhering to its viscid 

 and club-shaped tip. The feet, too, are as unique in their way as is the 

 tongue, some of the toes turning in one direction and the remainder in the 

 other, so as to form a grasping organ of unrivalled power. Whereas in the 

 front feet three toes go to form the inner half of the grasping organ, and two 

 to the outer, in the hind-limbs this arrangement is reversed. The large re- 

 volving and prominent eye is in the form of an egg, with most of the exposed 

 portion invested by a thick continuous lid of a granular texture, in the centre 

 of which is the minute perforation for the pupil. Each eye can be moved 

 independently of its fellow ; and these movements serve to heighten the 

 general grotesqueness of the creature's appearance. Owing to the frequent 

 development of three tall baokwardly-projecting ridges on the hinder part of 

 the skull, the head often assumes a casque-like form ; and the small triangu- 

 lar and compressed teeth are affixed to the jaws in the acrodont manner. In 

 ^llthe species the body is so much compressed as to be much deeper than 



