NUMBER XXX 

 THE HORNED LIZARDS 



IN Mexico, California and Nevada, there are 

 animals called " horned lizards," or Phryno- 

 somes, which are among the quaintest of living 

 creatures. They are often spoken of as " horned 

 roads," the wrong name (for toads are Amphibians 

 and without scales) being probably suggested by 

 their squat shape, their sluggish ways, and their 

 habit of catching insects on a sticky tongue. True 

 lizards they undoubtedly are, but they differ from 

 all others in their flat bodies covered with keeled, 

 spiny scales, and in the circlet of horns upon the 

 head. There are nearly twenty different kinds. 



What is the meaning of that circlet of sharp horns 

 on the head, which recall (as if in miniature) the 

 projecting horns of some of the extinct giant 

 reptiles ? ' The shape of head reminds one also of 

 the quaint fruits of the water-chestnut which the 

 peasants round Florence string into most decorative 

 rosaries. But what are the horns for ? They serve 

 to ward off blows and bites, for the creature lowers 

 its head and raises the scales of its back when it is 

 on the defensive, and we can well believe that if an 

 enemy bit the head of a horned lizard once, it 



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