THE CRESTED ANOLIS. 



81 



There is an old proverb, " No smoke without fire," and this saying is verified in the 

 present case. In some parts of Tropical America there is a perfectly harmless Lizard of 

 no great dimensions, belonging to the family of the Iguanas, and having a bold crest on 

 the back of its head. It is probable that one of these reptiles was imported into the 

 Old World at some time now forgotten, and that its rather odd shape and the crest on 

 its head were seized upon by the first describers, and reported with continually increas- 

 ing exaggerations by succeeding writers. 



Like the rest of the Iguanas, this animal is a good climber of trees, it can swim well, 

 and its food consists apparently of insects and the various little creatures which 

 frequent the water and the foliage of its banks. 



Although quite innocuous, it certainly is rather forbidding, and when it obtains its 

 greatest length of three feet presents a sufficiently formidable appearance to warrant in 

 some degree the wild and fabulous tales which were deduced from its strange shape. 

 Along the back, instead of the row of pointed spines which generally cross the back of 

 the Iguanas, runs a broad crest-like membrane, another broad membrane occupying 

 the upper surface of the tail. These curious appendages are supported by a series of 

 slender bones, formed by elongations of the vertebrae of the back and tail, so that the 

 animal looks exactly as if the fins of a fish had been grafted on the body of a reptile. 

 There is a slight pouch on the throat, and the palate is toothed. 



CRESTED ANOLIS. -Xlphosurus vellfer. 



MANY species of the Lizard tribe are called by the name of Anolis, but are divided 

 by systematic zoologists of the present day into several distinct genera. The CRESTED 

 ANOLIS inhabits some of the hotter portions of America and the neighboring islands. 



The chief point of interest in this Lizard is the curiously expansile throat, which, in 

 common with others of the same genus, it is able to expand at will. When terrified, it 

 tries to escape, but if it finds itself deprived of all means of eluding its antagonist, it 

 turns to bay, and by puffing out the throat until it assumes a very great size, endeavors 

 thereby to intimidate the foe. While thus engaged, the creature has the faculty of 

 continually altering its color ; the hues of the body to a certain degree, but more es- 

 pecially those of the throat, changing with a rapidity that is said even to surpass the 

 famed powers of the chameleon. 



It is an active little creature, traversing perpendicular objects with nearly as much 

 ease as the Gecko, and to aid it in these movements the last joint but one of the toes is 



