12 



LlZARDS.- 



-RKPTILES.- 



-Sl.ENDEK-TONGUEl) LiZARDS. 



tlie siJes, auJ tliis structure prevents them from sink- 

 ing into tlie sand. Tliis adaptation of structure to 

 tlieir ]iarticular liabits of life, forms a good cliaracter 

 fur dividing tiiis family into two groups, the smooth- 

 toed Uziirds, and tlie roiiijh-toed lizards. 



Lizards are remarkable amongst Iteptiles, for the 

 agility of their movements. Any one who has noticed 

 these animals, must have observed with wliat rapidity 

 they dart from one point to another, and how they can 

 cling to walls and rocks by means of their long and 

 crooked claws. In intertropical countries, however, 

 they are much more nimble and more active in their 

 habits than in our temperate climes; for here, as soon 

 as the cold weather commences, their motions become 

 slower and slower, and they tinish in winter by tail- 

 ing into a complete state of lethargy. Lizards in 

 general are very gentle, timid creatures. Children 

 in Europe make playthings of them, and the ancients 

 used to call the lizard " the fiiend of man." They 

 have, however, a considerable degree of courage, and 

 notwithstanding the gentleness of their natural man- 

 ners, they will bite pretty severely when laid hold of. 

 Some species, as the " eyed lizard," have even been 

 known to show tight to dogs and serpents, and though 

 not often conquerors in such combats, to have uiflicted 

 severe wounds upon their enemies. Their bite is not 

 poisonous, as was for a length of time believed ; but 

 still, from their teeth being placed in a series of rows, 

 and thus acting as a sort of saw, it is often very sharp 

 and severe. Their strength and couiage depend much 

 upon the temperature. Under the tro])ics they are 

 bold, some rather darigerous, and of considerable size. 

 In more northern countries they are timid, because they 

 are weak and of small size. But they are not stupidly 

 timid, as those who have watclied them in their native 

 haunts have explained to us. Should a slight noise 

 strike upon its ear, or an unaccustomed object suddenly 

 come in view, the little lizard previously, perhaps, 

 lying basking in the rays of the sun, may be seen to 

 raise itself inunediately upon its feet, to draw back its 

 head, and in that attitude carefully watch everything 

 around it. A leaf may have suddenly fallen to the 

 ground, it starts, watclies the object for a time to see 

 whether it will move again, then carefully advancing 

 nearer and nearer, examines it well, and satisfying 

 itself of its nature, returns to its i)osition and lays itself 

 down again to enjoy the warmth it loves so much. 

 Shuuld the danger be real, however, it flies like 

 lightning. Lizards generally hve in burrows or holes 

 which they dig in the ground or sand, often a foot or 

 more in depth, or in the hollows of rocks, or in crevices 

 of old walls, choosing always such situations as are 

 exposed to the sun. They are not sociable animals, 

 and never appear to unite together in numbers, for the 

 purposes of attack or defence. The instinct of pro- 

 curing food or of increasing their species, alone appear 

 to bring them together for even a very short time. 

 They feed exclusively upon living prey; insects of 

 various kinds, worms, snails, and any small animals 

 they meet with. In securing their prey they are very 

 cautious. When a lizard wishes to catch an insect, for 

 instance, it does not throw itself inconsiderately upon 

 it, but it follows attentively all its movements ; remain- 



ing motionless itself with outstretched neck, it wails 

 the favourable moment for action ; several times it 

 advances and withdraws its head as if to make sm-e u' 

 its aim, and then all due precautions taken, it darta 

 forward the head, at the same time ojjening wide 

 its mouth, in which the poor insect is immediately 

 engidfed and held fast by the numerous small teetli 

 with which the palate is furnished. Lizards are also 

 accused of eating birds' eggs, and it is even asserted 

 that they will eat tlieir own eggs when pressed much 

 by hunger. They eat seldom, however, and digest 

 slowly. Losing little by transpiration, they can endure 

 long fasts. It was formerly thought that these animals 

 did not drink at all, but that is now ascertained to be 

 incorrect, as they lap water in the same way as a dog 

 does, with their tongue. Though not sociable ani- 

 mals, lizards live in pairs ; the male and female, it is 

 said — more especially of the "grey lizard of the walls" 

 — remaining in a happy state of union during many 

 years, sharing the arrangement of the household, the 

 care of excluding the young from their numerous eggs, 

 of carrying them into the sun, and in placing them in 

 shelter from cold and humidity. With one exception 

 [Zootoca vivijmra) they lay eggs, from seven to fourteen 

 in number, depositing them in small holes, which the 

 female abandons immediately after they are laid, leaving 

 them to be hatched by the warmth of the sun. They 

 are said to be long lived, and tlie Abbe Bonnatene 

 relates that he had watched for twenty years the same 

 lizard daily leave its buri'ow to come and bask in the 

 sun. The tail ditiers in the two sexes, and this foims 

 a characteristic mark ; in the male it being flat, broad, 

 and furrowed longitudinally ; and in the female being 

 round and narrow. This organ is remarkably brittle, 

 and frequently snaps asunder by the mere exertion ot 

 the animal attempting to escape from danger. They 

 possess the faculty of forming a new one, wliicli, how- 

 ever, has only a central cartilage in the place of bones, 

 and is often covered with scales difterent from those of 

 the rest of the tail. " The least touch," saj's Mrs. Lee, 

 " makes them fall ofl", and as long as tails are necessary, 

 it is happy for them that Nature has given tlieni the 

 power of reproducing their lost member. A super- 

 abundance of this power, however, has occasionally 

 some awkward results, for if the accident merely ciack 

 the tail on one side, a new tail will sometimes spring 

 from the crack, and thus give them two at a time. On 

 a certain road in Madeira, it was observed that all the 

 lizards were without tails, and the circumstance was 

 accounted for by its being the favourite resort of the 

 midshipmen, wdio landed for a day's jileasure from the 

 dirterent ships of war which touched at the island, and 

 a part of that pleasure consisted in knocking oil the 

 lizards' tails." 



SMOOTH-TOED LIZARDS.* 



THE GREAT GREEN or EYED LIZARD [Laeerta 

 ocellutu), represented in Piatt' 1, lig. '1, and Plate 8, 

 tig. 11, is the largest of the fanjily; a native of the 

 south of France, Italy, and other southern countries of 

 Europe; also metwitli in Northern Africa, on the shores 



* The Leiuilaeti/kso! Dumeril and Biliroii, from the two U reek 

 worjt^ leios [^.t'o?], smooth, and duktutus (ouxru^ei), a toe. 



