FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



and neck of a plucked bird; and it also has a bird's 

 beak, but an enormous one armed with pointed teeth 

 in each mandible. Its wings are those of a bat, one 

 talon of each claw being disproportionately elon- 

 gated and serving as support to a wide membrane, 

 much as an umbrella-rib holds the stretched fabric 

 of the cover. Its other talons are free and are fur- 

 nished with hooked nails. 



The hind legs and feet are those of the lizard. 

 The body is covered with fine scales, is marbled with 

 touches of a darker color, and ends in an abbreviated 

 tail. Take away from this strange animal its bat's 

 wings, its long neck and its bird's head, and you 

 will have something closely resembling the lizard, 

 the creature that basks in the sun on old walls, or 

 that other one, larger and all green, which gives us 

 a start when it scuttles away among the dead leaves 

 or in the dense growth of the hedge. ' ' 



"And was it a lizard, then, or a bird?" asked 

 Emile. 



"It was a reptile, certainly," was the reply, "and 

 it might be called a sort of lizard. There were sev- 

 eral species, varying from the size of a lark to that 

 of a crow. Like the bat, the animal left its retreat 

 in the hollow of rocks and came out at night to 

 flutter awkwardly about in the air by the aid of its 

 wings of stretched skin. With its toothed beak it 

 snapped up in their flight immense dragon-flies, the 

 chief insects of that time. Its hunger appeased, it 

 took its repose on the ground, wings folded against 

 its sides, body supported by the hind legs; or else 



