A LEAPING LIZARD 



been selected to exemplify it. This agamoid is a foot 

 or so in length, exclusive of the long and whip-like 

 tail. It is of a brownish colour generally but its most 

 prominent feature, the frill, more than Elizabethan or 

 Jacobaean in size, which encircles the neck, is splashed 

 and spotted with vivid red. This fiery and glowing 

 fringe seems to lead into an equally glowing mouth 

 armed with teeth and with a lurid yellow tongue, the 

 sum total of these peculiarities being not unalarming 

 to the pursuer. This frill or rather mantle opens in 

 an umbrella-like fashion ; the skin of which it is com- 

 posed is strengthened by a " rib " derived from the 

 hyoid or tongue bones. When not in use it depends 

 elegantly over the shoulders. No special action on the 

 part of the reptile is needed to expand the frill ; it has 

 merely to open its mouth and the very act of opening 

 the mouth divaricates the ribs, and expands the mantle. 

 This process reminds one of the poison fangs of the 

 viper, which are brought into position for biting by 

 the mere action of opening the mouth ; when the mouth 

 is closed the fangs lie in a harmless longitudinal posi- 

 tion. As for the frill itself, the most obvious thing to 

 compare it to is the hood of the cobras, which with 

 it is indeed precisely analogous as far as we can judge. 

 It is a " scare organ " intended, so at least it is pre- 

 sumed, to warn off aggressors by a show of violence, 

 which might forbid more effective measures of retaliation 

 These methods of indicating rage and determination 

 are not uncommon in the animal kindgom ; but at times 

 they are not much more than bluff. In the present 

 case the reptile can carry out its threats to some 

 extent. It not only bites but lashes in a stinging 

 fashion with its long and lithe tail, a kind of pugnacity 

 also shown by the iguana. There is more, however, that 

 is worthy of note in the Chlamydosaurus than this 

 mantle, which gives to it its scientific name. Lizards 



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