* 5 6 
LIZARDS. 
The Ameivas. 
together with eggs. The female lays from fifty to sixty harcl-shelled eggs about 
the size of those of a pigeon, generally placed in the hillocks of white ants. 
The dracaena (Dracaena guianensis), of the Guianas and Amazonia, is a 
somewhat smaller lizard, distinguished by its compressed and doubly-keeled tail, 
the intermixture of keeled tubercles among the scales of the back, and the 
extremely broad crowns of the cheek-teeth. 
Our second figured representative of the family is the Surinam 
ameiva (Arneiva surinamensis), belonging to a genus of nearly 
twenty species distributed over Central and South America, where they take the 
place occupied by the true lizards in the Old World. They are distinguished by 
their round, keelless tails, the presence of less than twenty rows of large smooth 
scales on the under surface of the body, and the compressed two- or three-cusped 
cheek-teeth. The tongue can be withdrawn into a sheath. The figured species, 
which is found over South America as far as Nicaragua, attains a length of from 
15 to 20 inches, and is very variable in coloration. The young are olive-brown, 
with darker markings or white dots, and a black, white-edged band running along 
the side of the body and extending on to the tail; these bands generally disappear¬ 
ing with age, although sometimes retained in the females. In the adult the upper 
surface is usually greenish, with some black and a few white spots; while the 
under-parts are greenish white, spotted with black on the sides. Ameivas are 
generally found in dry districts—more especially near the coasts, and in their 
general habits are not very different from the teju, usually living in holes, among 
old wood, or the herbage of gardens. 
The Amphisb^enas. 
Family A MPHISB^NIDjE. 
Among the most remarkable of all lizards are those whose typical repre¬ 
sentatives have the power of moving equally well either backwards or forwards, 
from whence they derive the name by which the group is now commonly 
designated. Very nearly related to the preceding family, through those members 
of the latter with aborted limbs, the amphisbmnas are distinguished by the simple 
and degraded characters of the skull, in which all the arches have been lost, 
and the two premaxillary bones are fused into one. All are adapted to a purely 
subterranean existence, and have long, worm-like bodies, devoid, except in one 
species, of any external trace of limbs; while even the bones of the shoulder and 
pelvis are more or less rudimental. The eyes are concealed beneath the skin; the 
mouth is small, and frequently inferior in position; and the ear is completely 
wanting. Although the head is covered with large symmetrical shields, the skin 
of the body is divided into squared segments forming regular rings, like those of 
worms; from which character the group is sometimes spoken of as the ringed 
lizards. In all the tail is short. The large teeth are few in number, and fixed 
either to the inner or upper edges of the jaws. 
The amphisbaenas, which are arranged in eleven genera, including between 
sixty and seventy species, are most numerously represented in America south of 
