LIZARDS. 301 



The sea-turtles have limbs terminating in a sort of fins, 

 and the carapace is not large enough to receive the head 

 and limbs. They are found in warm seas and grow to a 

 great size, specimens having been taken that weighed 

 seventeen hundred pounds. The flesh of the green 

 turtle is highly esteemed. The hawksbill or caret fur- 

 nishes tortoise-shell, each individual having thirteen 

 large plates in the centre of the carapace, and twenty- 

 five smaller ones on the borders. 



RHYNCOCEPHALIA LACERTILIA. 



The order of rhyncocephalia is represented by but one 

 living species, the New Zealand lizard or sphenodon, 

 remarkable in having a third eye. 



The general characteristics of the lizards have been 

 given in Chapter X., and we need not reconsider them. 

 The species of lacertilia are very numerous ; some very 

 small, others exceedingly large. The largest is the mon- 

 itor of the Nile, an aquatic lizard that grows to a length 

 of six or seven feet. Then come the iguanas, a large 

 family, the species being variously and brilliantly colored ; 

 they occur in South America and the West Indies, and 

 attain a length of from three to five feet. The geckos are 

 dull in color, inhabitants of Southern Europe, India, and 

 Egypt, attaining a length of more than two feet. The 

 poisonous Gila monster, found in the sandy deserts of New 

 Mexico, Arizona, and Texas, has brilliant black and 

 orange scales ; it is more than a foot long, and is the only 

 venomous lizard, excepting the closely-allied Mexican 

 lizard. The horned toads of the Southern United States 

 are lizards, as are also the glass-snake of the United 

 States and the slow-worm of Europe. 



The chameleons have the power of changing color 

 26 



