nd the warm sun bursts forth, a formidable
snake-like creature, nearly three feet in length, is often seen
frequenting the plantations of the sweet potato, or coiled up beneath
the roots of an old tree; its keen eye watching for any small reptile or
insect which may be passing. The head is small in proportion to the
body, and of a pyramidal form--mottled at the sides with black and
green, the jaws edged with yellow. Its abdomen is bright yellow; and
the upper part of the ear is marked with numerous lines of black, green,
and yellow.

Altogether, it has a very venomous look about it; but is truly one of
the most harmless of creatures, not being a snake at all, though it goes
by the name of the glass snake. It is in reality a lizard; though--not
having the vestige of limbs--it is appropriately called the
lizard-snake. It has, however, eyelids; and the tongue is not sheathed
at the base, as is the case with serpents; while its solid jaw-bones do
not enable it to open its mouth, as they are capable of doing. It has a
tail, twice the length of its body, from which it can with difficulty be
distinguished.

Its peculiar characteristic is its extraordinary fragility--arising from
the muscles being articulated quite through the vertebras. If struck
with a switch, the body is easily broken in two or more parts.
Sometimes, indeed, the creature breaks off its own tail, by a remarkable
habit it possesses of contracting the muscles with great force. The
common English blind-worm breaks to pieces in a similar manner.

THE ANOLIS.

Among the true lizards is a pretty little creature known as the green
Carolina anolis. It is especially daring; not only refusing to run away
at the approach of man, but will enter houses, and run about the room in
search of flies. It is very active, climbing trees, and leaping from
branch to branch in its search for insects, of which it destroys great
numbers. It is about seven inches long--mostly of a beautiful green
above, with white below; and it has a white throat-pouch, which
generally appears with a few bars of red upon it, but when inflated the
colour spreads over the whole surface.

Mr Gosse describes one which he saw running about among the branches of
a sassafras, just as it had seized a grasshopper. He caught the
creature, which was then of a green hue; but, on placing it on an old
log, the colour changed to a brownish-black. He was told, that if
placed on a green leaf it would