Worm-like Lizards are usually covered with mere vestiges of scales, 
lack visible eyes and ears, and have pinkish bodies and bluntly rounded 
tails which explain their name. The group is divided into three families: 
about forty species of amphisbaenids in America, the Mediterranean coun¬ 
tries and Africa; two species of aniellids found only in California; and 
about forty species of anguidids, which are chiefly American but have a 
few European and Indian representatives. Resembling them are the snake¬ 
like lizards or pygopods which are degenerate species confined to Australia, 
Tasmania and New Guinea. In superficial appearance and actions there is 
little to distinguish the eight little-known members of this lizard family 
from true snakes. 
Monitors are large lizards inhabiting parts of Africa, Arabia, southern 
Asia and Australia. The largest one of the twenty-seven species, and the 
largest of all living lizards, is the Komodo dragon of the East Indies. 
Poisonous Lizards , of which there are but three species, include the 
famed Gila monster, the only one whose venomous nature has been inves¬ 
tigated; the Mexican beaded lizard, and a third species, confined to the 
East Indies; the latter never having been investigated sufficiently to estab¬ 
lish whether or not it employs venom. 
Iguanas , with about three hundred species, are probably the best 
known lizards. All iguanas, including the related horned “toads,” chucka- 
wallas and basilisks, are almost entirely confined to the Western Hemi¬ 
sphere. Included in this group are the granular scaled xenosaur of Mexico 
and the fourteen species of African and Malagasy zonurids. 
Agamas include more than one hundred and fifty diverse and curious 
species. Some have the ability to glide, others display wonderful bearded 
and cape-like appendages, and one — the Moloch horridus — wins the prize 
for sheer hideousness. 
Chameleons , numbering less than fifty species, are queer-looking, 
casque-headed monsters in miniature. They have prehensile tails, fast 
changing colors and rolling eyes. They wander about trees and bushes in 
Africa, Madagascar, the Mediterranean countries, southern India and 
Ceylon. 
The relationships of these families are in part indicated in the chart 
of lizard evolution adapted from an article by Dr. William K. Gregory, 
published in the Bulletin of the New York Zoological Society . 
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