The Zoologist— April, 18C9. 1629 



I can't find it in my heart to conclude these desultory notes without 

 paying my humble tribute to the philosophic manner in which lizards 

 part with their tails. My friend Mr. Bates tells us that in the Brazils 

 "a slight rap will cause the tails of lizards to snap off, the loss being 

 afterwards partially repaired by a new growth:" and, like a true 

 naturalist, he goes on to philosophise on the matter thus — "The tails 

 of lizards seem to be almost useless appendages to these animals ; I 

 used often to amuse myself in the suburbs, while resting in the veran- 

 dah of our house during the heat of the day, by watching the varie- 

 gated green, brown and yellow ground-lizards. They would come 

 nimbly forward and commence grubbing with their fore feet and 

 snouts around the roots of herbage, searching for insect larvae. On 

 the slightest alarm they would scamper off — their tails cocked up in 

 the air as they waddled awkwardly away, evidently an encumbrance 

 to them in their flight." * This throws the required light on the sub- 

 ject : you can scarcely look at one of our lizards without his throwing 

 off the useless encumbrance with which nature has loaded him. I 

 believe I may say a school-boy never seizes a lizard by his tail, but 

 the overjoyed creature leaves the useless appendage between his 

 fingers, in which position it will wriggle and twist until the aston- 

 ished lad is glad to release his useless captive ; and dropping it on 

 the ground its violent demonstrations of vitality are again renewed, 

 and are sometimes continued for the space of an hour. The bleeding 

 stump from which the tail has been discarded soon heals over, and 

 before long nature produces a new tail in the place of the old one : 

 this reproductive power is almost as marvellous as the self-mutilating 

 power by which the tail is discarded, and both require that careful in- 

 vestigation which has not yet been given to them. We shall see here- 

 after that this mutilation has, under certain circumstances, a bearing 

 on that natural instinct, the preservation of life ; for those snakes 

 which feed on lizards almost invariably seize their retreating victim 

 by the tail, and no sooner is this abandoned by the rightful owner 

 to its inevitable fate, than the snake makes sure of this " sop thrown 

 to Cerberus," and suffers the tailless lizard to generate a new caudal 

 encumbrance at leisure. The mutilation has sometimes a most curious 

 effect, by which the lizard may be said to be a gainer, for the stump 

 not unfrequently produces two tails instead of one. 



Edward Newman, 

 (To be coDtinued.) 



* ' Natumlist on ihe Amazon,' vol. i., p. 17. 



