88 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 



advantage of the long neck in browsing off the vegetation 

 on the bottom of shallow lakes, while the animal was 

 submerged, or in rearing the head aloft to scan the sur- 

 rounding shores for the approach of an enemy. Or, 

 with the tail as a counterpoise, the entire body could be 

 reared out of water and the head be raised some thirty 

 feet in the air. 



Triceratops, he of the three-horned face, had a re- 

 markable skull which projected backward over the neck, 

 like a fireman's helmet, or a sunbonnet worn hind side 

 before, while over each eye was a massive horn directed 

 forward, a third, but much smaller horn being some- 

 times present on the nose. 



The little " Horned Toad," which isn't a toad at all, 

 is the nearest suggestion we have to-day of Triceratops; 

 but, could he realize the ambition of the frog in the 

 fable and swell himself to the dimensions of an ox, he 

 would even then be but a pigmy compared with his 

 ancient and distant relative. 



So far as mere appearance goes he would compare 

 very well, for while so much is said about the strange 

 appearance of the Dinosaurs, it is to be borne in mind 

 that their peculiarities are enhanced by their size, and 

 that there are many lizards of to-day that lack only 

 stature to be even more bizarre; and, for example, 

 were the Australian Moloch but big enough, he could 

 give even Stegosaurus " points" in more ways than one. 



Standing before the skull of Triceratops, looking 

 him squarely in the face, one notices in front of each 

 eye a thick guard of projecting bone, and while this must 

 have interfered with vision directly ahead it must 

 have also furnished protection for the eye. So long as 

 Triceratops faced an adversary he must have been 

 practically invulnerable, but as he was the largest 

 animal of his time, excepting always Tyrannosaurus, 



