134 LIZARDS. 



he may desire, although the rapidity of their movements is so great that some 

 practice is required to effect their capture. Their food is entirely of a vegetable 

 nature ; and to gather this the basilisks are astir with the first rays of dawn, 

 while during the heat of the day they prefer to rest among the most leafy boughs. 

 At the slightest sound, they raise the head, innate the throat, and elevate the 

 crest ; and as soon as the bright, yellow-irised eye detects the presence of a foe, 

 the basilisks throw themselves instantaneously into the water above which they 

 are usually reposing. In swimming, the head and neck are raised, the fore-limbs 

 serve the part of propellers, while the crested tail acts as a rudder ; hence the 

 common name of " ferrymen " is applied to these lizards. At the end of April or 

 beginning of May the female lays from twelve to eighteen eggs in some cranny at 

 the foot of a tree, where they are left for the sun to hatch. 



Ridge-Headed Nearly allied to the basilisks are the three species of ridge-headed 



Lizards. lizards (Corythophanes) of Central America, characterised by the head 

 being prolonged backwards into a bony, helmet-like projection, while the tail is 

 devoid of a crest, although the neck and back are provided with a low appendage 

 of this nature. On the throat there is both a pouch and a transverse fold. The 

 most interesting of the three species is the one named C. hernandezi, in which the 

 head is crowned with a helmet-like prolongation so like that of the chameleon that 

 the creature is commonly spoken of under that name by the Mexicans. Like the 

 anolis lizards, these reptiles are in the constant habit of changing their somewhat 

 sombre colours ; and it has been observed in a captive specimen that whereas the 

 patch on the pouch was white during the day, at night it assumed, like the other 

 light parts of the body, a blackish hue. 



While agreeing with the basilisks in having the plates on the 

 under surface of the toes distinctly keeled, there are a number of 

 genera in the family distinguished by the absence of any backward prolongation 

 of the crown of the head. Among these we select for mention the stilted lizards, 

 specially characterised by the large size of the occipital shield of the head, the 

 presence of a vacuity in the breast-bone, the small or moderate-sized scales of the 

 tail, the long and highly curved toes, and the presence of tusk-like teeth in 

 the jaws. There are but two representatives of the genus, both of which have 

 a wide distribution in South America. The figured species ( Uraniscodon umbra), 

 which attains a length of about a foot, two-thirds of which are occupied by the 

 long and cylindrical tail, has a short and frog-like head, raised into curved ridges 

 over the eyes, with the muzzle very blunt, and the lower jaw longer than the 

 upper. The skin of the neck is curiously puckered inferiorly, the folds forming 

 a pair of pouches on the sides, although there is no pouch on the throat. In 

 form, the body is at most but slightly compressed, with a low and slightly serrated 

 crest running from the nape down to the back; and the uniform scales of the 

 back are small and overlapping, and those on the top of the head enlarged. The 

 long and bent toes are markedly compressed, and are furnished with short but 

 strong claws. In coloration this species is one of the handsomest of its tribe. The. 

 general ground-colour of the upper-parts is reddish or purplish brown, ornamented 

 with more or less distinctly defined blackish transverse bars ; a broad black band 

 traverses the fold in front of the shoulder, and may extend across the nape ; while 



