52 NATURE STUDIES. 



The class of lizards is well known to be related to 

 that of snakes by many ties of structural kinship. 

 Both are groups of the reptilian class, and we find cer- 

 tain lizards (e.g., the harmless blind-worm of Britain,) 

 which may be as destitute of legs as any snake. 

 No lizard, until quite recently, was known to bo 

 poisonous, or to possess any structures suggestive of 

 the possession and manufacture of a poisonous secre- 

 tion. Horrible, ungainly, and ugly as many lizards 

 are, no fear of evil consequences could have been ex- 

 perienced in handling them, and naturalists would 

 have given a very decided negative to any inquiry 

 respecting the existence of a poison-secretion in the 

 lizard group. But as it is the unexpected which 

 happens proverbially in political and social life, so 

 zoological existence has been startled by the news 

 that a truly poisonous lizard has at length been dis- 

 covered. 



This reptile is named the Heloderma horridum, and 

 hails from the neighbourhood of Puebla. It is, there- 

 fore, a denizen of the New World, and has found its 

 way to the reptile-house in the London Zoo' through 

 the kindness of Sir John Lubbock. The traditions of 

 the lizard are, it appears, unfavourable, if its Indian 

 character is to be believed. The natives appear to 

 regard it as a malignant deity, and are said to endea- 

 vour to propitiate the supposed evil power by the 

 offer of sacrifices to the lizard-god. When first brought 

 to London, the reptile was regarded as an interesting 

 example of a rare species of lizard. Like the rest of 



