. Natural history. Zoology. 410 REPTILIA—ORDER III.—SQUAMATA. Sliink Tribe. —Family SciiKidie. scales on the back. Another South European genus, also extending into the north of Africa, is Pnammodromus, the members of which differ from both the genera above-mentioned by the slight development or complete absence of a collar or gorget round the throat. A small neatly-made lizard, commonly known as the skink (Scincus offid- nalis), which inhabits the Sahara desert and the countries bordering the Red Sea, is the type of the last large and important family of the Lacertilia. it should, however, be
. Natural history. Zoology. 410 REPTILIA—ORDER III.—SQUAMATA. Sliink Tribe. —Family SciiKidie. scales on the back. Another South European genus, also extending into the north of Africa, is Pnammodromus, the members of which differ from both the genera above-mentioned by the slight development or complete absence of a collar or gorget round the throat. A small neatly-made lizard, commonly known as the skink (Scincus offid- nalis), which inhabits the Sahara desert and the countries bordering the Red Sea, is the type of the last large and important family of the Lacertilia. it should, however, be mentioned that the small African family of the Gerrhosauridm includes five genera, which, to a certain extent, serve to connect the Lacertidie with the Scincidte. They have, for instance, the scales of the body underlain by bony plates of peculiar internal structure, as is the case with the latter family, whereas in the union of the two premaxil- lary bones and the presence of pores on the thighs, they are like the former. Tlie presence of such bony plates beneath the scales, the distinctness of the two premaxillse, and the invariable absence of pores on the limbs, are characters amply sufiicient to differentiate the Hcincidie from the Lacertidie. There are twenty-five genera included in the family under consideration, in one of which {Lygosoma) no less than one hundred and fifty-nine distinct species are recognised by zoologists. With such a number of different forms, it is not surprising to find that the family is cosmopolitan. Its head-quarters are, h(jwever, the Australasian and Oriental countries, together witli the islands of the Pacific and Africa. Skinks are essentially terrestrial lizards, all loving dry sandy deserts, where many burrow in the soil; and it is probably largely due to such habits that the lower eyelid is furnished with a transparent window in the centre, so that the eye can be used when protected by its covering. A peculiar feature of the family i
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