THE SCINCOIDES OR SERPENT LIZ ABBS, 159 



directly to the Bimanes, and thxrough them to the slow- 

 worms : here again, as in the former division, we find 

 several small sub-genera, mostly founded upon a single 

 species. One has five toes ; another four on the anterior 

 feet, and five on the hinder : one also has but four 

 toes on all the feet. Finally, so little dependence can 

 now be placed on organs, which, in other natural groups, 

 serve to characterise classes and orders, that we come to 

 a species where some individuals have three toes, others 

 five, and others again but one. Such, at least, is the 

 opinion of M. Cuvier, w^ho notices this extraordinary 

 fact nearly in the following words : " The Chalcide 

 figured by Lacepede (pi. 32.) has five toes before, and 

 three behind ; but these toes are so exceedingly minute, 

 that they are reduced to small tubercles, and are so 

 little apparent, that the species has been regarded some- 

 times as having three toes, and sometimes but one." 

 {Griff. Cuv. p. l52.) It has thus been formed into three 

 difiJerent genera by the continental methodists, having 

 received the names of ChamcBsaura, Chalcis Cophias, 

 and Colobus ! 



(163.) The last division are the Clm'otes. They 

 resemble those reptiles we have just quitted in their 

 verticillated scales, but they are distinguished from 

 them by wanting the hind feet : in other respects they 

 agree with the AmphisbcencB, particularly in the obtuse 

 form of their head ; but then, again, they differ in pos- 

 sessing two short anterior feet, which those serpents are 

 v/ithout. Of this division, only one species is known : 

 the Chirotes lumhricoides {Lacerta lumhricoides Shaw), 

 a native of Mexico. Its organisation is very peculiar ; 

 it is eight or ten inches long, as thick as the little 

 finger, flesh-coloured, and covered with about 220 semi- 

 rings en the back, and as many on the belly, which 

 meet on the sides. The feet are four-toed, with the 

 vestige of a fifth : they are attached by omoplates, cla- 

 vicles, and a small sternum ; but the head, vertebree, 

 and the rest of the skeleton resembles the AmpMshosncB: 

 the tongue is slightly extensible, and ends in two small 



