644 THE DINOSAURS OR TERRIBLE LIZARDS. 



But here we must, even if reluctantly, curb our imagination a little 

 and consider another point: The cold-blooded, sluggish reptile-, as we 

 know them to-day, do not waste their energies in rapid movements, 

 or in keeping the temperature of their bodies above that of the air. 

 and so by no means require the amount of food needed by more 

 active, warm-blooded animals. Alligators, turtles, and snakes will go 

 for weeks, even months, without food, and while this applies more 

 particularly to those that dwell in temperate climes and during their 

 winter hibernation practically suspend tin 1 functions of digestion and 

 respiration, it is more or less true of all reptiles. And as (here is little 

 reason for supposing that reptiles behaved in the past any differently 

 from what they do in the present, these great Dinosaurs may. after 

 all. not have been gifted with such ravenous appetites as one might 

 fancy. Still, it is dangerous to lay down any hard and fast laws con- 

 cerning animals, and he who writes about them is continually obliged 

 to qualify his remarks— in sporting parlance, to hedge a little, and in 

 the present instance there is some reason, based on the arrangement 

 of the vertebrae and ribs, to suppose that the lungs of Dinosaurs were 

 somewhat like those of birds, and that, as a corollary, their blood may 

 have been better aerated and warmer than that of living reptiles. 

 But to return to the question of food. 



From the peculiar character of the articulations of the limb bones 

 it is inferred that these animals were largely aquatic in their habits, 

 and fed on some abundant species of water plants. One can readily 

 see the advantage of the long neck in browsing off the vegetation on 

 the bottom of shallow lakes, while the animal was submerged, or in 

 rearing the head aloft to scan the surrounding shores for the approach 

 of an enemy. Or, with the tail as a counterpoise, the entire body 

 could be reared out of water and the head be raised some 30 feet in 

 the air. 



Triceratops, he of the three-horned face, had a remarkable skull 

 which projected backward over the neck, like a fireman's helmet, or a 

 sunbonnet worn hind side before, while over each eye was a massive 

 horn directed forward, a third, but much smaller horn being some- 

 times present on the nose. 



The little "horned toad."' which isn't a toad at all. is the nearest sug- 

 gestion we have to-day of Triceratops; but. could he realize the 

 ambition of the frog in the fable and swell himself to the dimension* 

 of an ox. he would even then be but a pigmy compared with his 

 ancient and distant relative. 



So far as mere appearance goes he would compare very well, for 

 while so much is said about the strange appearance of the Dinosaurs, 

 it is to be borne in mind that their peculiarities arc enhanced by their 

 size, and that there are many lizards of to-day that lack only stature to 

 be even more bizarre; and, for example, were the Australian Moloch 



