INTRODUCTION. XV 



majority there are four. The eyelids are connivent. Transparent lower 

 lids occur in species of Eumcces. The tongue is slender, exsertile, and pro- 

 vided with a pair of pointed extremities. In habits the Seines are terres- 

 trial. They secrete themselves under logs, bark, rocks, leaves, or in 

 shallow burrows in loose earth or sand. Their eggs number ten or a 

 dozen, and are laid in these situations. East of the Mississippi Eumeccs 

 fasciatus, the "Blue-tail," is the most common; it is found as far North 

 as Illinois and New York. Sj)ecimens ten inches in length are very large. 

 A second species, E. anthracinus, is found in the mountains of Pennsyl- 

 vania and Southward. Two others have been described from Florida. 

 Westward to Mexico the number is much increased. E. leptogrammus is 

 taken in Dakota. A species of another genus, Oligosoma laterale, has a 

 distribution somewhat similar to that of E. fasciatus, probably not extend- 

 ing quite so far North. The family is found in all tropical and subtrop- 

 ical countries. Trachydosaurus, the "Stump-tail," and Cyclodus, Australian 

 genera, are of the largest. 



A Californian genus, Amelia, furnishes a foundation for the family Aniel- 

 lidce. This lizard has a long snake-like body and tail, and is without limbs. 



The Acontias, Acontiadce, are from the Eastern Hemisphere. Acontias 

 has no limbs, and the upper eyelid is rudimentary. Evesia has short limbs, 

 and the toes are not separate. Nessia has only three toes to the foot. 



One of the common lizards of Southern California and Mexico, Ger- 

 rhonotus, belongs to the Zonuridce, a family of which the greater portion 

 belongs to the old world, and which is specially marked by a distinct longi- 

 tudinal fold or groove along each flank. Another member of this family is 

 the footless snake-lizard, Ophisaurus. The latter has a long, slender tail, 

 which is easily broken, and being longer than the body, more than half the 

 total length can be carried away without disabling the animal, which, by 

 a second growth, soon replaces the portion lost. It is to this peculiar genus 

 that we owe the fiction of the "Glass-snake." Pseudopus, an allied genus of 

 Europe and Southern Asia, resembles the preceding, but has on each side 

 of the vent a small limb, on which the toes are not separated. 



The AMPHiSByENiA form a very distinct suborder of the Sauria. In the 

 typical forms the body is long and subcylindrical, and the tail short and 

 thick. The bones of the skull are firmly articulated, and the symphysis of 

 the lower jaw is nonelastic. The tongue is flat, thick, and notched at the 

 end; the eyes are small and covered by the skin; the ears are hidden; and 



