132 



JUNGLE ISLAND 



convenient handle to pick up the whole animal. 

 If the tail is touched, the lizard, of course, snaps 

 it off and leaves it wriggling on the ground. I 

 wonder how man}^ snakes and birds have had 

 only lizard tails for their dinners when they had 

 thought they were about to have whole lizards ! 



Down close to the w^ater's edge lived some 

 larger lizards with long hind legs and tail. When 

 disturbed they went running out over the surface 

 of the water in the most startling manner. They 

 ran with bodies erect, on their hind legs, spreading 

 the long toes of their hind ^et to support them 

 on the water and balancing easily with their long 

 tails. I suppose they could swim if they should 

 chance to fall under the water, but all those that 

 I saw skipped as easily over the surface of the 

 inlet as if it were dry shore. They lived on land 

 too, but always near water. 



They look, as they run around, very much as 

 did their relatives, the old dinosaurs (Fig. 57), in 



After Lull 



Fig. 57. Dinosaur 



the great days of the reptiles, except that one 

 must remember that not even a baby dinosaur 

 would be so small. 



