. The life-history of British lizards and their local distribution in the British Isles. ak across. The first problem which presents itself in thisconnection is this. Seeing that in most animalspossessed of long tails the muscles are attached fromone vertebra to another, allowing of a certain amountof intervertebral movement, but keeping the tail, as awhole, attached to the body even if a fracture ofa vertebra occurs, what special muscular arrangementexists in those hzards which drop their tails whenthis accident happens ? Secondly, even if by someanatomical arrangement the muscles do not keep
. The life-history of British lizards and their local distribution in the British Isles. ak across. The first problem which presents itself in thisconnection is this. Seeing that in most animalspossessed of long tails the muscles are attached fromone vertebra to another, allowing of a certain amountof intervertebral movement, but keeping the tail, as awhole, attached to the body even if a fracture ofa vertebra occurs, what special muscular arrangementexists in those hzards which drop their tails whenthis accident happens ? Secondly, even if by someanatomical arrangement the muscles do not keep thetail attached to the body, how is it that the skin orintegument always breaks all round the circumferenceof the tail exactly over the point of the fracturedvertebrae ? (The species of lizards first used to investigatethese points were Aiiguis fragilis, the slow-worm, andLacerta viridis, the green lizard, of the Continent andChannel Islands.) 1. Angicis fragilis, the Slow-worm. Selecting a specimen from my collection, I proceededto carefully break off a portion of the tail. It was. SLOW-WORM : ALMOST COMPLETE FRACTURE.
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