114 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



imagine that the process is a slow one. I have, how- 

 ever, seen in different lizards the new tail in every stage 

 of its growth. In its earliest stage the new tail has much 

 the appearance of a thorn growing protruding from the 

 end of the body. This thorn gradually thickens and 

 lengthens into a stump. In process of time the stump 

 lengthens into a tail. I do not think that the new tail 

 ever attains to quite the length of the original tail, nor 

 in form is it so symmetrical ; and, moreover, there is 

 always a mark like a ridge or scar at its base, indicating 

 the spot where it has been protruded from the body. 

 Sometimes, though rarely, the new tail is double. This, 

 I imagine, is the result of an accident: the new tail when 

 first protruded has somehow got notched or split, and 

 each half has developed independently. 



As regards this renewal of the tails of the lizards, a 

 curious question arises, and one which I am quite unable 

 to answer. The lizards vary greatly in size: the ordinary 

 house lizard is not usually — I speak from memory — 

 more than from six to nine inches in length, tail in- 

 cluded, while the rock lizard of the Himalaya attains 

 almost to the dimensions of a small alligator. I have 

 seen some more than a yard long, and of proportionate 

 girth. Now, do these great lizards also possess the 

 power of renewing their tails ? And if they do not, then 

 at what degree of size does the power of renewal cease ? 

 For between these giants and the diminutive house 

 lizards there are lizards of every degree of magnitude. 



The lizards, as a rule, have no beauty : the house 

 lizard is ugly ; the great rock lizard is hideous. But one 

 variety of lizard is really pretty. Its beauty, however. 



