THE AGAMOID LIZARDS 2477 



Europe to the Cape, and eastward as far as China, the Malayan Islands, Australia, 

 and Oceania, but are unknown in New Zealand and Madagascar. Both as regards 

 genera and species, their headquarters is, however, the Oriental region; Africa 

 possessing only three genera, of which one is confined to the northefh part of the 

 continent, while but four species enter Southeastern Europe. 



Commonly known as flying dragons, the members of the first genus 

 s of the family are elegant and harmless little creatures to whom such a 

 title seems inappropriate, and we therefore prefer to substitute the name of flying 

 lizards more especially as we have applied the former appellation to the extinct 

 pterodactyles. These flying lizards, which are represented by twenty -one species,' 

 ranging over the greater part of the Oriental region, are at once distinguished from 

 all their kindred by the depressed body being provided with a large wing-like mem- 

 branous expansion, supported by the elongated extremities of the six or seven hinder 

 ribs, and capable of being folded up like a fan. The throat is furnished with a large 

 membranous expansion, on the sides of which are a smaller pair, and the tail is long 

 and whip-like. The best known of the species is the Malay flying lizard (Draco 

 volans], which is a rather common form, and belongs to a group characterized by 

 the nostrils being lateral and directed outward; this particular species being distin- 

 guished by the absence of a spine above the eye, by the aperture of the ear being 

 smaller than the eye, and by the inferior surface of the parachute being ornamented 

 with black spots. In addition to the appendages on the throat, the males have a 

 small crest on the nape of the neck; while in both sexes the back is covered with 

 irregular, large-keeled scales, and its sides have a series of still larger scales, which 

 are also keeled. In length it measures a little over eight inches. As regards col- 

 oration, the upper parts are of a brilliant but variable metallic hue, ornamented 

 with small dark spots and wavy cross bands; between the eyes is a black spot, and a 

 similar one occurs on the nape; the parachute is orange, with marblings or irregular 

 cross bands of black, and the throat is mottled with black, its appendage being 

 orange in the male and bluish in the female. This lizard inhabits the Malay Pen- 

 insula, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, and in the living state is described as being so 

 superlatively beautiful as to baffle description. 



Essentially arboreal in their habits, the flying lizards generally frequent the 

 crowns of trees, and as they are comparatively scarce, and seldom descend to 

 the ground, they are but rarely seen. Describing the habits of the Malayan spe- 

 cies, Cantor says that ' ' as the lizard lies in shade along the trunk of a tree, its col- 

 ors at a distance appear like a mixture of brown and gray, and render it scarcely 

 distinguishable from the bark. There it remains with no signs of life, except the 

 restless eyes, watching passing insects, which, suddenly expanding its wings, it 

 seizes with a sometimes considerable, unerring leap. The lizard itself appears to 

 possess no power of changing its colors." When excited, the appendages on the 

 throat are expanded or erected, and the ordinary movements of the creature take 

 the form of a series of leaps. After commenting on the fact that both flying lizards 

 and flying lemurs inhabit the same countries, and have very similar modes of life, 

 Moseley states that, when springing from branch to branch and from tree to tree, the 

 former pass so rapidly through the air that the expansion of the parachute almost 



