514 Reptiles. 



vorous, but feed on insects, the eggs of birds, and other 

 animal matter, as well as on plants. They will occa- 

 sionally take to the water, and seem to swim with ease. 

 Notwithstanding its repulsive and even frightful appear- 

 ance, the Iguana is perfectly harmless and inoffensive. 



THE FLYING LIZAED, OE DEAGON. 



(Draco volans.) 



THE Flying Dragons, those terrible creatures described 

 by the older naturalists, are undoubtedly fabulous and, 

 indeed, impossible creatures, and either entirely pro- 

 ducts of the imagination of the vulgar, or founded upon 

 specimens manufactured for the express purpose of 

 taking in the naturalist, who, in old times, was a little 

 too ready to believe in wonders of this kind. The wings 

 of a bat attached to a body and legs made up from half 

 a dozen animals would furnish a capital Dragon in 

 former times. Modern naturalists apply the name of 

 Dragon to some little lizards inhabiting the East Indies, 

 and which have none of those terrible qualities ascribed 

 to the fabled monsters of antiquity. They are related to 

 the Iguanas, but have on each side of the body a mem- 

 branous expansion, stiffened by the prolongation into it 

 of the first six false ribs ; this acts as a sort of parachute, 

 and enables the little creatures, not to fly, but to leap or 

 glide through the air to considerable distances between 

 one tree and another, They live entirely in trees, and 

 feed on insects. 



