The natural history of fishes, amphibians, & reptiles, or monocardian animals . the one handto the IguanidcB, and on the other to the Lacertid( are no very large or remarkably shaped lizards inthis family, except, perhaps, the Hydrosaiires, or crocodilelizards, most of which are from South America. Theyderive their familiar name from being above the ordinarysize, and having a low double crest of spines upon theircompressed tail. Like their prototypes, also, they aremostly found among the rank herbage of savannahs,and on the sides of rivers ; the analogy is still furtherpreserved by the
The natural history of fishes, amphibians, & reptiles, or monocardian animals . the one handto the IguanidcB, and on the other to the Lacertid( are no very large or remarkably shaped lizards inthis family, except, perhaps, the Hydrosaiires, or crocodilelizards, most of which are from South America. Theyderive their familiar name from being above the ordinarysize, and having a low double crest of spines upon theircompressed tail. Like their prototypes, also, they aremostly found among the rank herbage of savannahs,and on the sides of rivers ; the analogy is still furtherpreserved by the scales of the Hydrosaures being irregu-larly hexangular, so as to resemble the plates or buck-lers with which the skin of the crocodiles. is of these, indeed, the Heloderma horridum (fig. 41.) has the scales upon thehead and some parts ofthe body raised in themiddle and angulated onthe sides, so as to give aperfect miniature resem-blance to the plates onthe shells of the tortoises. We are entirely unacquaintedwith that genus which should fiU up the interval be-. 156 CLASSIFICATION OF REPTILES. tween Hydrosaures and Leiolepis, but we suspect thatit will be composed of several of the sub-genera, which,at present^ we have placed provisionally among theAgainidcE. (158.) The SciN coid^, the skinks. or the serpent-lizards—? the sixth and last family — are so called from theirgeneral resemblance to snakes, with which, in fact, the fa-mily is absolutely blended. They are immediately knownby their very short feet, by their lengthened boc^y and tail,and by being, for the most part, covered with serpent-like scales : the head is small and smooth, and the tongueis not capable of extension. As this is the group bywhich nature blends the lizards with the serpents, thefeet, as being the principal mark of distinction betweenthe two tribes, are subject to considerable variation inthe minor groups : they are generally four, but some-times only two; and even these frequently appe
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, booksubj, booksubjectfishes, booksubjectreptiles
