CLASS 111. KEPTILIA: OKDER, 3. SAURIA. 



383 



THE nTL^OSAURUS. 



watcli, as motionless and still as the leaves theuiselves ; and it is even difficult for any eye but 

 that of the practiced angler to discover what shadowy form it is that ripples the whimpled water 

 as the bold old trout sails leisurely up the stream, with his back-fin just peeping above the sur- 

 face, on the look-out for a May-fly for his luxmnous repast." 



The Common Chameleon of Europe, C. Africaniis — Cameleon of the French — is sixteen to 

 eighteen inches long, the tail being nearly as long as the body. It occurs in all the northern 

 parts of Africa, and also in India ; it has become naturalized in some parts of the south of Europe. 



Other species arc as follows: the Rhinoceros Chameleon, C. rhinoceratus^ ioMAvX in Mada- 

 gascar: the Flap-necked Chameleon, C. dile'pis, found in Senegal and the vicinity : the Pearled 

 Chameleon, C pumHu!^, found at the Cape of Good Hope: the Three-horned Chameleon, C. 

 Owenii, found in Fernando Po. Most of the other species belong to Africa. 



Fossil Lizards. — In former parts of this work we have mentioned some of the gigantic fossil 

 lizards whose vestiges have been discovered by the geologists. Among these we have described 

 the Iguanodon (page 8, vol. I.), supposed in its structure and habits to have borne some resemblance 

 to the existing iguanas, which we have described. But a few more particulars may be proper 

 in connection with the order to which this extraordinary animal belonged. 



For our knowledge of this ]\Ionster of the Past, we are chiefly indebted to the energy, patience, 

 and acuteness of Dr. Mantell, of London. Parts of several skeletons have been obtained, i>ut 

 none of them entire ; one, however, is so for complete as to make it certain that this species was 

 of the most gigantic dimensions, some supposing it to have been a hundred feet in length. In 

 the latest edition of Dr. Mantell's " Wonders of Geology," he speaks on thio subject as follows : 

 "The length of the Iguanodon has been variously estimated, the diff'erence in the computation 

 depending chiefly on the extent assigned to the tail, which in the Iguana and many other lizards 

 is much longer than the body. If the tail of the fossil reptile was slender, and of the same rela- 

 tive proportions as in the Iguana, the longest individual would be fifty or sixty feet long; but it 

 is more pi'obable, from the shortness of the bodies of the caudal vertebra3, that the tail was com- 

 paratively short and flattened at the sides, as in some living reptiles, for example, the Doryphorus. 

 \\\ that case the length of a full-grown Iguanodon would but little exceed thirty feet."* 



* Mr. W. Hawkins has prepared restorations of many of the gigantic fossil animals, representing them as they are 

 supposed to have appeared, and these are exhibited at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, near London. In this he 

 was assisted by Dr. Owen, who ranks as the first living Comparative Anatomist. Dr. Jlantcll regarded th''^! restora- 

 tions as cxecnted with great skill and science, and worthy of every confidence. Several of them we have copied 

 here and elsewhere in the present work. 



