WATER-LIZARDS AND THEIR ILK. 103 



the lizard shape, and yet with how much more 

 of respect do we look at a frog. And a fat old 

 grandfatherly toad that lived in a hole in our 

 garden once commanded my childish interest, 

 almost affection. But a lizard ! No matter if 

 Wallace does tell us that, on the Ke Islands, he 

 found swarms of little green lizards with tails of 

 the " most heavenly blue," no amount of coloring 

 can make a lizard very acceptable. 



On the hill away beyond those eucalyptus-trees, 

 a party of us one May Day had an adventure with 

 a lizard. The creature had a very long tail. One 

 of the boys tried, with a lad's usual kindness, to 

 stamp on the lizard, when, lo ! it threw off the 

 tail and ran for dear life. 



But the tail ! It went rushing around, looking 

 like a little snake. Perhaps the tail was trying 

 to run after the lizard. At all events our party 

 left looking after the lizard to see what his lively 

 remnant would do. No one dared touch the 

 wriggling thing, until a sturdy carpenter snatched 

 it up. He bequeathed it to me, and I put it in 

 my handkerchief, but before I had walked the 

 half mile home the lizard's memento was quite 

 still. Having a number of Whirligig beetles at 

 the time, I gave them an opportunity to taste of 

 lizard's flesh, but they would have nothing to do 

 with it. Whirligigs have likes and dislikes, after 

 the fashion of human beings. 



The Water - lizards described as living in the 



