5 i6 



LACERTAE 



in about thirty genera, are known, exhibit a great diversity of 

 mostly flat -bodied, terrestrial and more laterally compressed, 

 arboreal forms. The majority are insectivorous, a few Agamas 

 have a mixed diet, while Uromastix and some others are chiefly, 

 if not entirely, frugivorous and herbivorous. They are an ex- 

 clusively Old- World family, avoiding the cooler parts of the 

 Palaearctic sub-region, and also, a very curious fact, Madagascar. 

 The majority live in Australia and in the Indian and Malay 

 countries, comparatively few in Africa, chiefly the genus Agama. 

 Draco (" Flying Dragon"). The body is much depressed and- 



FIG. 123. Draco volans. 



the sides extend as a pair of large wing-like membranes, which are 

 supported by five or six of the much-elongated posterior ribs, and 

 can be folded up like a fan. On the throat are three pointed 

 appendages, a short one on either side and a long one in the 

 middle. The tail is very long and slender, but not brittle. About 

 twenty species of this extraordinary genus inhabit the various 

 Indo-Malayan countries ; one, D. dussumieri, occurs in Madras. 

 D. volans of the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo is 

 about 1 inches long, 5 of which are taken up by the tail. The 



