CHAPTEK XI 



tails, heads, jaws, teeth, and tongues in 



keptiles 



Tails 



In the reptiles the tail seems quite important, for 

 no reptile, except the AmphisbmiKX^ is without one; 

 and even in this family some even show stumps. 

 These creatures run backward, and a tail would be 

 in the way here. In some sea-turtles it is very 

 short, as it is in some of the dry -land kinds. These 

 latter, when they close theii* shells, take great pains 

 to get the tail well boxed in. 



In some extinct lizard -forms, known generally as 

 Dinosaurs^ the tail acted as a fifth limb or. prop as 

 they walked, stood, or sat erect on the two hind legs 

 only ; and these tails must have been terrible weapons, 

 as that of the crocodilian is vet. 



Our smaller lizards retain the tail for various 

 uses, and doubtless for ornament also. Some of the 

 large monitors can strike serious blows with it. In 

 others, as the chameleon, flying lizard, and some tree- 

 lizards, it is prehensile and can be curled around a 

 limb to aid them in clinijinfi: and climbino^. Doubt- 



less the tail in lizards, as in the salamanders, is a 



79 



