IN THE LARAMIE BEDS OF WYOMING. 



127 



bottom with the front ones that are 

 much smaller, only one sixth as large 

 as the hind ones, begin to draw into 

 a huge month, great armsfnl of the 

 juicy foliage, which he nips off with 

 his duck-bill and passes baek to be 

 cut into shreds with the scissor-like 

 teeth. As part of the body is still hid- 

 den in the water we can not realize 

 the huge dimensions of this lizard, un- 

 til weary of feeding, he pushes a path- 

 way through the dense foliage to the 



length follow a flattened swimming 

 organ, whose undulatory motion had 

 cast so many wavelets against the 

 rushes that lined the bayou. 



As he rises on his hind feet the wa- 

 ter pours off a brilliantly colored body 

 with scales arranged in beautiful pat- 

 terns, as if to imitate the various col- 

 ored rank vegetation among which he 

 lives. There, he stands a monument of 

 grace and beauty, and he must be 

 twenty feet in height. He darts his 



BREASTBONE AND FRONT OF SKELETON OF THE GREAT TRACHODON 



NOW IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 

 Showing the dermal covering and also the limbs at right angles to body as it lay in the 

 quarry in the Laramie Beds of Converse County, Wyoming. 



Photograph by Geo. F. Sternberg. 



solid land, and with the aid of his fore 

 feet pulls himself out on the shore. 

 His huge hind limbs eight feet in 

 length with three powerful toes are 

 armed with hoofs of horn. While his 

 front ones are but five feet long, hav- 

 ing three hoofs and a rudimentary one 

 that is used as a clumsy "thumb for 

 grasping. A great tail some ten feet in 



duck-bill out in all directions as if 

 scenting the air for his natural enemy. 

 As if satisfied he drops to the ground, 

 and assumes his natural position when 

 on land, moving gracefully along on 

 all four limbs. His back and rounded 

 hips, swell in beauteous curves, and 

 his flexible scale-covered skin folds in 

 handsome lines, its bright colors har- 



