SKINK TRIBE. 
169 
Greece, and is also spread over Asia Minor, Syria, and Northern Arabia, measures 
only 4 inches in length, of which fully half is occupied by the tail. Its general 
colour above is bronzy olive, becoming darker on the sides, and with a blackish 
light-edged streak passing through the eye along each side of the body; while the 
under-parts are greenish. The European species is found alike on slopes covered 
with short grass or in sandy spots, and does not appear to be a burrower. Feeding 
on small insects and worms, it does not generally venture forth from its lurking- 
places till four or five o’clock in the afternoon, and retires before night. In 
common with the other members of its genus, it differs from the majority of its 
family in laying eggs. 
While both the genera above-mentioned belong to a group 
characterised by the palatine bones meeting in the middle of the 
palate, the true skinks indicate a second and smaller group in which those bones 
True Skinks. 
common skink (J nat. size). 
are separated from one another. Skinks are neatly made, somewhat short-tailed 
lizards, with short limbs provided with five toes serrated on their sides. The 
tail is conical, the head and snout wedge-shaped, the ear more or less concealed, 
while the nostrils are pierced between an upper and a lower nasal shield. Of 
the nine species of the genus, which range from North Africa through Arabia 
and Persia to Sind, the most familiar is the common skink (Scincus officinalis ), 
of the Sahara and Red Sea littoral. This species, which attains a length of 
3 5 inches, has smooth, shining, rounded scales of great breadth, and is of a 
yellowish or brownish colour above, with each scale marked by small brown 
and whitish spots and streaks, and the sides of the body often ornamented 
with dark transverse bands; the under-parts being uniformly whitish. Not 
uncommon in Egypt, and abundant in the Algerian and Tunisian Sahara, the 
common skink derives its specific name from having been extensively employed 
