86 THE STORY OF REPTILE LIFE. 



Among the natives, by the way, both the flesh 

 and eggs of the different species of monitor are 

 highly esteemed as food. In Burma, the wretched 

 victim, if not wanted at once, suffers the most 

 barbarous treatment. The fore-feet are turned 

 over the back, the toes are broken and the 

 sinews drawn out and tied in a knot, thus ren- 

 dering escape impossible. In India, they are put 

 to a very droll use by thieves. If they desire 

 to scale a wall too high to climb, they procure 

 one of these lizards, tie a rope round its body, 

 and placing it against the wall, which is of mud, 

 release their prisoner, which at once makes for 

 the top and jumps over to the other side bearing 

 the rope with it. Up this the man swarms, the 

 weight of the creature, aided by the vigorous 

 hold which it takes of the ground, keeping the 

 line fast ! ! 



Though essentially ground-dwellers, the life 

 led by the lizards we have just described is un- 

 attended, as we have already remarked, by any 

 peculiar modification of form. Adaptation is 

 conspicuous by its absence. Hence the versatility 

 displayed. Quite otherwise, however, is it with 

 the ground-dwellers which we are now to examine. 



These forms, in order that they may maintain 

 their existence, have been compelled to undergo 

 certain more or less striking structural modi- 

 fications. In some cases these are obviously 

 adaptations to the peculiar requirements of the 

 creature's environment ; in others the interpreta- 

 tion is by no means so easy. 



Among the more interesting of these changes 

 we may notice the development of thorny spines 



