282 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



A species of the genus leads a terrestrial life on the same islands, and is the 

 subcristatus (Gray). This species, writes Mr. Darwin, "differently from the last, is confined to 

 the central islands of the Archipelago, namely, to Albemarle, James, Barrington, and Indefatigable. 

 To the southward, in Charles, Hood, and Chatham Islands, and to the northward, in Towers, 

 Bindloes, and Abingdon, I neither saw nor heard of any. It would appear as if this species had been 

 created in the centre of the Archipelago, and thence had been dispersed only to a certain distance. 

 In the central islands they inhabit both the higher and damp, as well as the lower and sterile parts ; 

 but in the latter they are much the most numerous. I cannot give a more forcible proof of their 

 numbers than by stating that when we were left at James Island we could not for some time find a 

 spot free from their burrows on which to pitch our tent. These Lizards, like their brothers, the sea 

 kind, are ugly animals, and are a little smaller." 



The second division of the family of Iguanidse relates to those Iguana-like creatures which have 



AMHLYRHYNCHUS CRISTATU8. 



acrodont teeth, that is to say, the teeth are placed with their bases on the top of the jaw-bones 

 without sockets. They are nearly all inhabitants of the Eastern hemisphere and of Australia. 

 One of the most interesting is a little representation of the Dragon of the mediaeval Eastern 

 imagination. There are many species of these " Dragons," * but they are restricted to the East 

 Indies, and they are more numerous in the Archipelago than in the Continent. They have not 

 yet been found in Ceylon. The character, according to Giinther, by which the FLYING LIZARDS may 

 be at once recognised, is the peculiar additional apparatus for locomotion, formed by the prolonged 

 five or six hind ribs, which are connected by a fold of extensible skin, the whole forming a sub- 

 semicircular wing on each side of the body. They have a long, pouch-like, downward projection of 

 the skin from the throat, and a small horizontal fold sticking out on each side. 



They live in trees, jumping from branch to branch, and expanding their back-parachutes. They 

 move rapidly and safely over some distance. When running along a branch, or resting, the back 

 folds of skin are laid backwards along the flanks. They run but seldom, but jump and leap 

 vivaciously. The skinny appendages of the throat are merely appendages of the skin, and may be 

 compared with the wattles of birds : they are not hollow, but they are connected with the hinder 

 horns of the hyoid bone, and can be erected or spread out when the animal is excited by rage. The 



* Di'aco volans. 



