40t 



THE SCALY LIZARD. 



some sand, drv leaves, grass, and mud over them, smooths it, and 

 deposits a second layer upon them. TJiese eggs are then covered in a 

 <imihir manner, and another layer deposited, until the mother-reptile 

 has laid from fifty to sixty eggs. Although they are hatched by the 

 heat of the sun and the decaying vegetable matter, the mother does 

 not desert her young, but leads them to the water, and takes care of 

 them until tlieir limbs are sufficiently strong and their scales sufficiently 

 fiiin to permit them to roam the waters without assistance. 



During the winter months the Alligator buries itself in the mud, 

 but a very little warmth is sufficient to make it quit its retreat and 



come into the open air 

 again. While lively, 

 especially at night, it is 

 a most noisy animal, 

 bellowing in so loud a 

 tone and in so singular 

 a cadence that even the 

 ^^ nightly concert of jag- 

 uars and monkeys is 

 hardly heard when the 

 Alligators are roaring. 

 It sometimes attains 

 to a great size, and is 

 then formidable to man. Mr. Waterton mentions a case where one 

 of those creatures was seen to rush out of the water, seize a man, and 

 carry him away in spite of his cries and struggles. The beast plunged 

 into the river with his prey, and neither Alligator nor man was after- 

 ward seen. 



The true Lizards have four limbs, generally visible, but in a few in- 

 .'^tanccs hidden under the skin. Their body is long and rounded, and 

 tlie tail is tapering and mostly covered with scales set in regular circles 

 or " whorls." 



England possesses at least two examples of the true Lizards, one of 

 which, the 8caly Lizard, is very common. This pretty little reptile 

 h extremely plentiful upon heaths, banks, and commons, where it may 

 be seen darting about in its own quick, lively manner, flitting among 

 the grnss-stall<s with a series of sharp, twisting springs, snapping up the 

 unsuspecting flies as they rest on the grass-blades, and ever and anon 

 slipping under shelter of a gorse-bush or heather-tuft, only to emerge 

 in another moment, brisk and lively as ever. 



This is one of the reptiles that produce living young, the eggs being 

 hatched just before the young Lizards are born. With reptiles the 

 general plan is to place the eggs in some spot where they are ex- 

 po.<ed to the heat of the sunbeams, but this Lizard, together with the 



The Alligator [AUiyator Mississipensis). 



