Crocodiles are found in the warmer parts of Africa, Asia, America, and Australia, and in some of the larger rivers are very plentiful. Just now and then they venture down into the sea. Alligators, which also are known as caymans and jacares, are only found in America and place their eggs in holes dug in the mud or earth beside the water. In the colder parts of the range they burrow under the mud of the banks and spend the winter in sleep. THE LIZARDS Lizards look at first glance like diminutive alligators, because most of them have long-jawed heads, short legs wide apart, and long tails; but really they are near relatives of the snakes, for not only their internal structure but the coat of scales is snake-like; but an important difference is that the jaws of the lizard are firmly hinged to a solid skull, while the bones of the skull of the snake, including those of the jaws, are connected by elastic cartilages which enable them to spread apart and permit the swallowing of a mouthful astonishingly large. But the lizards have no need of such a convenience, for they subsist almost wholly on insects, or else are vegetable-eaters. Lizards are almost entirely denizens of the tropics, and seem to rejoice in the fiercest heat. They will lie contentedly in the desert at noonday on rocks so hot that they would blister your hand if you touched them. Therefore few are to be found in Europe or North America, except in the extreme south. THE BLINDWORM Two or three small kinds are to be found in the south of England, one of which is curious as representing a tribe, largely represented in other parts of the world, of legless burrowing lizards, which look much like little snakes, for none of them are more than ten or twelve inches long, while they are of the thickness of a lead-pencil. They look so shiny and serpent-like that many people are afraid of them. But the blindworm, or slowworm, as this creature is called, is perfectly harmless. It cannot bite you, for its teeth are far too tiny to pierce the skin; and it cannot sting you, because it has no sting. There is its odd little forked tongue, of course, which is always darting in and out of its mouth, just like that of a snake. But this tongue is only a feeler. Whenever a blindworm comes to an object it does not quite understand, it touches it gently all over with the tip of its tongue, just as we might touch it with the tips of our fingers. Notwithstanding its name, the blindworm has a pair of very good, though rather small, beady black eyes; and, of course, it is not a worm. During the daytime the blindworm mostly lies hidden under a large stone; and on turning such a stone over, one may sometimes find two or three of these lizards all coiled up together. But in the evening they leave their hiding-places, and go out to search for the tiny white slugs on which they feed.