Cassell's natural history (1896) (20548399081)

Title: Cassell's natural history

Identifier: cassellsnaturalh03dunc (find matches)

Year: 1896 (1890s)

Authors: Duncan, P. Martin (Peter Martin), 1821-1891; Metcalf Collection (North Carolina State University). NCRS

Subjects: Animals; Animal behavior

Publisher: London (etc) Cassell & Company, Limited

Contributing Library: NCSU Libraries

Digitizing Sponsor: NCSU Libraries

Text Appearing Before Image:

294 NATURAL HISTORY. It is evident tliat the luminous rays belonging to the blue-violet region of the spectrum act directly upon the contractile matter of the corpuscles, causing them to move and ajiproach the .surface of the skin.* SUB-ORDER AMPHISB.^NOIDA. The White Amphisb!Bna,t which may be considered the type of this remarkable group, is a snake-like animal, without arms or legs, and these the natives suppose it was born with and has lost. The word is from the Greek aii<pl<rPaiva, which means an animal that can walk in both direc- tions, and the reptiles can move forwards or backwards with their very worm-like bodies. They are not Sn^es, however, but really belong to the Lacertilia. The White Amphisbasna, or Ibijara, is a Brazilian kind, and has the cylindrical worm-like body of the grouji, being about as thick as one's linger, the head and tail not lieing distinguished

Text Appearing After Image:

readily by careless and frightened observers. It grows to the length of one foot six inches, or to one foot nine inches, the tail, or that round part behind the vent, being from an inch and a half to two inches only in length. On looking at the body, a great number of rings of hard, glassy-looking skin, made to look scale-like by markings in regular longitudinal lines, are seen. The result of the markings and disposition in rings is to produce a mosaic of quadrangular false scales, and they are very equal in size ; and after skin-shedding has taken place are glossy and rich in tint. The mouth is small, the muzzle is round, and the head is rather flat on the top, and there are two large separated nasal plates and two pairs of frontal plates behind them. The eye is very small, and covered with thin skin, and the limbs are deficient Burrowing easily in the ground and in ants' nests, the Amphisbsena preys on small things, and has a short thick tongr.o without a sheath. The genus Blanus has a more worm-like species than Amj)hisb»na. One of this sub-order has a very small pair of arms with four digits, situated just behind the head, but there are no legs. This is called Chirotes canaliculatus, and is about eight to ten inches in length, and as thick as the little fingei'. It appears to burrow, and to live on insects in its worm- like life. In these Amphisbfenoida the vertebi-je are procoelous, and there is no sacrum, and all the vertebrse in front of the tail, except the one or two nearest the skull, have ribs. Theii- internal anatomy is more like that of the Chamseleons than any other group. SUB-ORDER BREVILINGUES.—THE SCINC0ID.5: AND ZONURID^. Some of these might readily be taken for Lizai'ds, and others for Snakes, so variable They are a harmless set of beii having, however, undeservedly very bad reputatio * It is a point of some importance to recognise tliat tlie hemispheres of the brain, by the intervention of the involuntary (reflex) nerves, govern the colour-deciding nerve—those which move the corpuscles—and it would ajipear that this in- voluntary action relates to what is seen by the eye of the opposite side of the body. t Amphisbwna alba.

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1896

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