

TOAD AND ANOLIS. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



LIZAKDS, FROGS AI^D TOADS. 



Their Multitude within the Tropics — The Geckoes — Anatomy of their Feet — 

 The Anolis — Their Love of Fight — The Chameleon — Its wonderful Changes 

 of Colour — Its Habits — Peculiarities of its Organisation — The Iguana — The 

 Teju — The Water-Lizards — Lizard Worship on the Coast of Africa — The 

 Flyicg Dragon — The Basilisk — Frogs and Toads — The Pipa — The Bahia 

 Toad — The Giant Toad — The Musical Toad— Brazilian and Surinam Tree- 

 Frogs. 



rpHE equatorial regions may well be called the head-quarters 

 X of the lizard race, as these reptiles nowhere else appear 

 in such a multitude of genera, species, and individuals. The 

 stranger is struck with their numbers as soon as he sets his foot 

 on a tropical shore, for on all sides, on the sands and in the 

 forests, on banks and rocks, on the trees and on the ground, 

 innumerable varieties of lizards are seen basking, rustling, 

 crawling, climbing, or rapidly darting along. 



The Geckoes might even claim to be ranked among the 

 domestic animals, as they take up their abode in the dwellings 

 of man, ^vhere they make themselves useful by the destruction 

 of flies, spiders, and other noxious or disagreeable insects, which 

 they almost always swallow entire, their throat being as broad as 



