Ifi Lizards. REPTILES. SLENDiiR-'roNGUiiD Lizards. 
“ They run -with such extraordinary rapidity, tliat it is 
almost impossible for the eye to follow them in their 
flight. The instant they are discovered, they seek a 
place of concealment, and that they generally find in 
the loose sand which is commonly found accumulated 
under the shrubs with which the district is furnished. 
In this sand they burrow with amazing rapidity, and it 
requires an experienced eye to trace their course in it, 
though that is seldom far below the surface.” — 
Several other species are natives of South America. 
These are the Buckleu-backs {Gorrhonoti).'^ They 
have the body of an elongate, spindle-shaped form, 
with very short legs, no true neck, and a long round 
tail, gradually becoming more slender as it approaches 
the extremity. 
Of the habits of tliese animals little is known ; but 
they lead on to another group of lizards, which are 
characterized by having still more elongate and slender 
bodies and tails, and either only two legs, which are 
quite rudimentaiy, or none at all. Their general 
appearance, in consequence, is that of a serpent, and 
indeed with that order they used formerly to be classed. 
These are the False-feet {Pseudopus) and the Glass- 
snake {Ophisnurus). 
THE FAISE-FOOT or Siieltopusik {Pseudopus 
Palassii) — Plate 1, fig. 3 — is a native of Europe, and 
is about three feet long. Cuvier placed it among 
the serpents ; and as Uumeril and Bibron remark, if we 
consider only the form of the body, which is exceedingly 
long, and almost destitute of feet, this animal ought 
not to take its place amongst Saurian Reptiles. If we 
attentively observe the ensemble of its organization, 
however, both internally and externally, it may be said 
to be only a Buckler-back, or Gerrlionote, without feet. 
The tongue, teeth, nostrils, ears, and scales of the 
body, constitute it truly Saurian. Externally there is 
not the slightest appearance of fore-feet, but internally 
we find them represented by a bony tubercle on each 
side of the breast-bone. The hinder-feet are in the 
form of two very short appendages, mere vestiges of 
legs. It has no distinct neck, and the tail has the 
same form as the body, but is at least a tbird longer. 
In the adult, the upper parts of the bod}' are of a chest- 
nut colour, picked off with black ; but in the young 
animal the neck and back are banded with cross bars 
ot a brown colour on a grey ground. The False-foot 
is a native of the Crimea, Istria, the Morea, and the 
southern districts of Siberia. It was first described by 
the celebrated Pallas, who found it in the sandy desert 
of Naryn, near the river Volga. The natives of the 
districts where it abounds, give it the name of S/ielto- 
puslk. It dwells in preference in the shady valleys 
where grass grows abundantly, and where it can pro- 
cure its favourite food, which consists of small lizards 
and insects. It is timid and harmless, conceals itself 
amongst the tangled brushwood, and flies when any 
one approaches it. By the French naturalists engaged 
in the “ Scientific Expedition to the Morea,” this reptile 
was found in the Peloponnesus. Being unknown to 
them at first, they supposed it to belong to'the serpent 
order, and the first individual which was seen by them, 
• From the two Greek words, gerron a buckler, and 
ruitos {yairti;), the bark. 
while basking in the vernal sun, after emerging from 
its winter retreat, was instantly killed with the butt-end 
of their guns. They were siuqirised to find it destitute 
of fangs, and not poisonous. Many other specimens 
were taken after that, and kept alive in rooms, theii 
quiet inoffensive disposition rendering them easily 
reconciled to such a degi'ee of captivity. They were 
fed upon hard-boiled eggs, but, upon one occasion, one 
of the captives obtained access to a nest of young 
birds, which it soon swallowed up. 
THE GLASS-SHAKE {Ophisaurus ventralis) is a 
native of North America, and is about eighteen inches 
long, the tail being about three times longer than its 
body. It is quite destitute of feet, for the body does 
not even offer the slightest vestiges of the hinder feet 
seen in the Sheltopusik. With the head of a lizard, it 
has a body exactly resembling that of a serpent ; but 
still in its organization it is a true Saurian. The upper 
part is of a greenish-brown colour, regularly and ele- 
gantly marked with numerous spots and streaks ot 
yellow. Catesby, in his “ Natural History of Caro- 
lina,” was the first who gave us any account of this 
singular reptile, and he considered it as a true serpent. 
“ The skin,” he says, “ is very smooth and shining, 
and of a different structure from that of other serpents. 
A small blow with a stick will cause the body to sepa- 
rate, not only at the place struck, but -at two or three 
other places ; the muscles being articulated in a singu- 
lar manner, quite througli to the vertebrae. They are 
generally said to be harmless. They appear earlier in 
tire spring than any other serpent, and are numerous in 
the sandy woods of Virginia and Carolina.” It is a 
harmless and timid animal, and feeds upon insects, 
small reptiles, frogs, &c. The extreme brittleness of its 
tail has long been well known, and this, with its shining 
appearance, has jirocured for it its peculiar name. 
Bartram, in his “ Travels in North America,” has also 
described this reptile as he met with it in Carolina. 
“ Stopping again at a natural shrubbery,” he says, “ on 
turning my eyes to some flowering .shrubs, I observed 
near my feet the surprising Glass-snake {Anguis 
fragilis). It seems as innocent and harmless as a 
worm. It is, when fidl-grown, two and a half feet in 
length, and three-fourths of an inch in thickness ; the 
abdomen or body part is remarkably short, and it 
seems to be all tail, which, though long, gradually 
attenuates to its extremity, yet not small and slender 
as in Switch-snakes. The colour and texture of the 
whole animal is exactly like bluish-gi'een glass, which, 
together with its fragility, almost jiersuades a stranger 
that it is in reality that brittle substance ; but it is 
only the tail jiart that breaks off, which it does like 
glass, by a very gentle stroke from a slender switch. 
Though it is quick and nimble in twisting about, yet it 
cannot run fast from one, but quickly secretes itself at 
the bottom of the grass, or under leaves. It is a vul- 
gar fable,” he adds, “ that it is able to rejiair itself 
after being broken into several pieces; which jiieces, 
common report says, by a power or faculty in the 
animal, voluntarily approach each other, join, and heal 
again.” 
Following the family of Cordyles {Zonnridai)i there 
succeeds, in the arrangement of Dr. Gray, a series of 
