THE ANCIENT FAMILY OF LIZARDS 131 



my hand. It is easy for any lizard to break off 

 his tail and then grow a new one and it is one of 

 his best ways of escaping from enemies. 



One day I set fat Httle Cholo to catching any 

 lizards he could find on the island. He came 

 back in half an hour with two lizard tails. 



"Why, Cholo," I said, "those are only tails." 



"Yes, Boss Doctor, this one, she's a tail, but 

 this one, he's a Hzard. I saw him jump!" 



I knew what had happened. Cholo had struck 

 the lizard, and the lizard had immediately made 

 off, dropping its tail, which wriggled like a snake. 

 While Cholo was gathering up the lively tail its 

 owner had got safely away. 



When the tail is brightly colored the trick is still 

 better. One of the common island lizards had a 

 brown back striped with rich yellow (Fig. 56), but 

 it boasted a tail of robin's-egg blue. The body 

 of the lizard was much the color of the dead 

 leaves over which he scampered, so that an 

 inexperienced person or a young animal would 

 notice much sooner the gay active tail left behind 

 than the dark animal slipping away. 



Another's white-tipped tail trailed after a 

 brown head and a bluish-coated body. When he 

 snapped off his conspicuous tail^ my hand reached 

 for it before I thought and I nearly lost the 

 lizard. 



Some lizards run away from danger with the 

 tail held high, offering what seems to be a very 



