64 NATURE'S STORY OF THE YEAR 



through the long after-history of the world reptiles 

 have held their own, though apparently sometimes 

 overwhelmed by stronger races ; and now they are 

 found in most parts of the world. 



The man whose joy is in the Norman blood of 

 but yesterday, and whose chest heaves with pride 

 beneath the wide branches of ancestral oaks, may 

 be watched from the tree-roots by the clear eyes 

 of a motionless creature of longer pedigree. The 

 man passes on, but that strange object remains, 

 motionless, glistening, barred with yellow, green 

 and black ; with lidless, stony eye ; betraying no 

 sign of life save that sometimes a slender black 

 fork springs from it, vibrates for a moment like a 

 double flash of lightning, and is gone. When the 

 trees shall have been uprooted by a tempest, or 

 have fallen, a crash of fretwork wrought by 

 boring grubs, the lithe reptile may seek its prey 

 amidst the wreckage. When the schemes of the 

 present owner shall be unheard down the echoes 

 of memory, his name untraceable, and his mansion 

 a heap of crumbling stones, the reptile will un- 

 consciously assert a prior territorial right. The 

 izard will bask in the curves of the carvings, or 



