254 THE REPTILES 



and the tropics ; the Nile Monitor attaining 6 feet in length: They 

 vary in habit and food, some frequenting the borders of rivers 

 and streams, and plunging into the water if alarmed ; others living 

 in dry and sandy situations. 



The Iguanas are lizards which live an arboreal life in tropical 

 America and the West Indies. They climb with ease and move 

 with great agility amongst the foliage, and do not hesitate to take 

 to water when alarmed. The most curious, perhaps, of the 

 American iguanas is the Basilisk, which looks more like some 

 heraldic beast from a coat of arms than a real and active tree 

 lizard. Its broad and rather sharp-pointed scaly head has a tall, 

 cap-like crest sticking up and back from the hinder part. A tall, 

 thin, fin-like, movable crest with spines on it passes along the 

 back, being highest over the loins, and there is a corresponding 

 one on the top of the long tail. The body is scaly and marked 

 in zigzags. Equally extraordinary in appearance are the nearly 

 related Flying Lizards and the Frilled Lizards, inhabitants of the 

 East Indies and Australia. 



The Geckos are curiously shaped, thick-bodied lizards, with 

 clawed, flattened-out toes, given to scampering up and down 

 walls and along the ceiling and all sorts of slippery places with the 

 greatest ease in the pursuit of the insects upon which they feed. 

 They are* an interesting family on account of their world-wide 

 distribution, and are of great antiquity. The males, as a rule, 

 are more brightly coloured than the females, but in both sexes 

 the coloration resembles that of their general surroundings to a 

 greater or less degree, enabling the lizard to avoid detection and 

 to steal upon its prey unobserved. The European Geckos make 

 quite interesting and amusing pets ; they are extremely pugna- 

 cious, loving a fight, and to rob each other, if possible, of their 

 prey. 



The Chameleon is one of the most extraordinary-looking creatures 

 in nature ; its neck is creased, its head triangular in outline, 

 with a pyramidal top, and the bright, beady eyes are capable of 

 looking in totally opposite directions at once. The long, pointed, 

 prehensile tail is generally coiled round the branch on which the 

 animal is resting, and the front and hind feet which terminate the 

 slender arms and legs have the digits or claws divided into fore 

 and aft sets, so that they clasp their supporting bough very much 



