o 
THE HORNED FROG. 231 
Rattle-snakes are exceedingly abundant 
upon these plains: scores of them are some- 
times killed in the course of a day’s travel; 
yet they seem remarkably harmless, for I have 
never witnessed an instance of a man’s being 
bitten, though they have been known to crawl 
even into the beds of travellers** Mules are 
sometimes bitten by them, yet very merely, 
though they must daily walk over considera 
ble numbers. - 
The horned frog, as modern travellers have 
christened it, or horned lizard,t as those of 
earlier times more rationally called it, is the 
most famed and curious reptile of the plains. 
Like the prairie dog, it is only found in the 
dry regions, often many miles from water. 
It no doubt lives nearly, if not wholly, without 
a Its food probably consists chiefly of 
and other insects; though many Mexi- 
cans will have it, that ‘the camaleon (as they 
call it) wwe del aire—lives upon the air. It 
has been kept several months without par- 
taking of a particle of aliment. . I once took 
a pair of them upon the far-western plains, 
which I shut up in a box and carried to one 
of the eastern cities, where they were kept 
for several months before they died,—without 
having taken food or water, though repeatedly 
offered them. 
* Though os never saw it tried, it has been said that snakes ae 
not crawl over a hair-rope stretched upon the ground, an 
consequently yaa form good barriers to keep these reptiles out of 
t Orbicular lizard, as it has been technically denominated. It 
would seem a species of i pi having apparently some, 
sean very little, v ariability of color 
