274 DENIZENS OF THE DESERT 



children. There was seemingly even in the 

 hearts of those dumb creatures some feeling 

 of gratitude and fellowship. They apparently 

 knew their friend, and, when they heard him 

 walking about with his heavy hobnailed boots 

 on the rough board floor, they would shuffle out 

 on the step and bask there in the sunshine until 

 their beneficent keeper threw down some meal 

 worms or flies and talked to them. They would 

 lick up the flies and worms with their viscid 

 tongues and feed until full when they would 

 waddle away to " sleep it off." 



The " horned toad" is totally different in 

 appearance from any of our other lizards. The 

 body is unusually flattened, and he carries on 

 his head those enormous horns which are "with- 

 out precedent among his modern kith and kin." 



"Any one who has seen a horned lizard on 

 the defensive," writes Dr. Harold Bryant, 

 "cannot doubt the value of these horns as a 

 protection to the animal. With its head lowered 

 so as to receive any blow on the horns and the 

 large scales of the back elevated, it presents a 

 very formidable appearance." 



So perfectly does the horned lizard's light 



