NAMES OF ANIMALS, FROGS, AND FISH 259 



The word viper is interesting ; coming directly 

 from the Romans, who wrote it vipera. This in 

 turn is a contraction of the feminine form of the 

 adjective vivipera, in reference to the habit of 

 these snakes of bringing forth their young alive. 



Lizard, through such forms as lesarde, lezard, 

 lagarto, lacerto, is from the Latin lacertus, a 

 lizard ; while closely related is the word alligator 

 by way of lagarto, aligarto, to alligator. The 

 prefix may have arisen as a corruption of an arti- 

 cle and a noun, as in the modern Spanish el 

 lagarto, a lizard. 



Monitor is Latin for one who reminds, these 

 lizards being so called because they are supposed 

 to give warning of the approach of crocodiles. 

 Asp can be carried back to the aspis of the 

 Romans, no trace being found in the dim vistas of 

 preceding tongues. 



Gecko, the name of certain wall-hunting lizards, 

 is derived from their croaking cry; while iguana 

 is a Spanish name taken from the old native 

 Haytian appellation liuana. 



Of the word frog we know nothing, although 

 through the medium of many languages it has had 

 as thorough an evolution as in its physical life. 

 We must also admit our ignorance in regard to 

 toad, backward search revealing only tade, tode, 

 ted, toode, and tadie, the root baffling all study. 

 Polliwog and tadpole are delightfully easy. Old 

 forms of polliwog are pollywig, polewiggle, and 



