NATURAL HISTORY. 
EOOM II.] 
.101 
tail be cracked only on one side, and not thrown off, a new tail often 
springs out of the crack, so that the member becomes forked. A 
specimen of a Lizard with such a tail, may be seen in this Case. 
The family of Zonurid^e (Case 4) are very like the true lizards, but 
the back and belly are covered with large nearly square shields, and the 
sides, which are only dilated when the animal has eaten a full meal, are 
covered with small scales. Some have four distinct, moderately long 
legs, and exposed ears. The African Lizards of this group are dis¬ 
tinguished by their thighs being marked with a line of pores on the un¬ 
der side. In Zonurus, the tail is furnished with spinose scales; in the 
Cicigna these scales are smooth. The Tachidromi of Java have a 
very long body, and only one pair of femoral pores; their scales are 
rhombic. The Caitea of Africa have also a very long body, but the feet are 
rudimentary, the front ones are long and slender, the hinder compressed 
and undivided. The American species, ( Gerrhonotus, ) on the contrary, 
have no glands under the thighs, and the scales of the tail are smooth 
and the ears exposed. The Abronice have a depressed head with an odd 
anterior central plate, which is not found in the Barisice ; the scales of 
the former are smooth and of the latter keeled. The Elgar i(B have a 
large central anterior frontal plate placed between two pairs of long 
band-like anterior ones. The Scheltopusiks ( Pseudopi ) of Europe 
have only rudiments of legs, in the form of undivided lobes, placed on 
the side of the vent; and the Glass Snakes of North America ( Oplti- 
sciuri) are quite destitute of legs: the species of these latter genera have 
the drum of the ear exposed. 
The Cercos aurhle (Case 4) are long cylindrical reptiles, with round¬ 
ed sides, covered like their backs with square scales placed in cross series. 
The scales of the tail are keeled, and placed in longitudinal series, of 
the throat, belly, and under sides of the tail, flat and square. 
The family of Chirocolid^e chiefly differ from the former in the 
scales of the tail being placed in rings alternating with each other; they 
have a double collar on the throat. 
The family of Champsaurid^e (Case 4) have only rudimentary 
limbs, and all the scales of the body are elongate, keeled and placed in 
longitudinal series. 
The family of Seines ( Scincid^e, Case 5) have a shielded head, like 
the true lizards, but the body, tail, and limbs are covered with uniform 
overlapping scales, w T hich are generally smooth and polished; they 
have only a small plate on the end of the muzzle, and two distinct eye¬ 
lids. The True Seines ( Scinci ) have four legs, with small margined 
toes, and a sharp edged muzzle, which enable them to bury themselves 
with facility in the sand of the deserts they inhabit. The genus Spkce- 
vops only differs from them in having simple toes and no apparent ears. 
Others have blunt noses, a spindle-shaped body with five toes to each 
of the four feet, as Trachysaurus, Egernia , Tiliqua; the first has 
large rugose bony scales, and a short depressed tail; the two latter 
have a conical tapering tail, and the second has spiny scales to the tail. 
The Lygosoma have very long slender bodies, and four very small, weak 
feet. The species of Seps are like the former, but have only three toes 
on each foot; and the Siaphos has the ears concealed under the skin. 
The Ophiodes are peculiar for having only two oblong lobes in the 
place of legs; the Ronia has only two small rudimentary subulate front 
