PKIMAUY DIVISIONS OF THE LIZARDS. 151 



and very long forked tongues. 4. The Scincoid.33, or 

 serpent lizards^ with short feet : and, 5. The Agamid^, 

 or frog lizards, where the head and body (in the typi^ 

 cal examples) are depressed, the latter very wide, and 

 •the belly and tail covered with imbricate scales ; they 

 have no palatine teeth, and bear a strong resemblance, 

 in many instances, to frogs. The four first of these, 

 with slight modifications, constitute primary groups in 

 the arrangement of the Regne Animal ; but the fifth, 

 which is there mentioned only as a genus, we have ex- 

 alted to the rank of a family, for reasons - which will 

 subsequently appear. A slight notice upon each of 

 these is all that our remaining space Vvdll admit of. 



(152.) The Chameleonid^, or chameleons, are dis- 

 tinguished at first sight from all others by having scan- 

 sorial feet, similar in their general structure to those of 

 parrots. There are, indee<:l, five toes to each foot, as in 

 the generality of lizards ; but these are divided into two 

 parcels, one of two, the other of three toes, and each 

 parcel is united together as far as the claws. The 

 tongue also affords another remarkable character : it is 

 fieshy, and capable of an enormous elongation ; the ex- 

 tremity is thickened or club-shaped, and is furnished 

 with a viscous secretion, by which the small insects at 

 which the tongue is thrown are giued, as it were, to the 

 end, and instantaneously conveyed to the mouth. The 

 chameleons, indeed, are some of the most extraordinary 

 animals in creation ; they seem scarcely to possess the 

 power of motion, for they walk with the greatest circum- 

 spection, and will frequently remain hours almost im- 

 moveable. Their eyes are unlike those of any other 

 lizard : they are large and prominent, but so much 

 covered by the scaly skin of the orbits, that there only 

 appears a small hole in the middle, opposite to the pupil ; 

 they may thus be compared to a tea-cup inverted, the 

 bov/1 of v/hich represents the part covered, and the rim 

 round the stand, that through which the animal sees : but 

 this is not all, for it is no uncommon thing to see the 

 animal directing its eyes in two different ways at once, 



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