382 DIVERSIONS OF A NATURALIST 



that the creature was a survivor from the lost world 

 of extinct " antediluvian " animals — falls to the ground. 

 It has no better claim to attention than the similar but 

 perhaps bolder statement indulged in from time to time 

 by an inventive transatlantic Press, namely, that " some 

 workmen on blasting a rock in the quarries at Barnums- 

 ville were astonished by the escape from a cavity within 

 the solid rock of a large flying lizard or pterodactyle, 

 which immediately spread its wings and flew out of sight." 



Connected with these fancies is the theory that the 

 traditional dragon of heraldry and of the Chinese is a 

 memory handed down to the present day from immensely 

 remote times, when — so we are asked to believe — man co- 

 existed with the great extinct dragon-like creatures known 

 as pterodactyles (see " Science from an Easy Chair," First 

 Series ; Methuen, 1 9 1 o). Asa matter of fact the heraldic 

 dragon does not closely resemble the pterodactyle or other 

 extinct reptiles, and is an imaginative creation of human 

 artists based upon the realities of the great pythons of 

 India and the little parachute lizard (8 inches long) 

 of the same region, known to zoologists as Draco volans. 

 The close agreement of this little lizard with European 

 heraldic representations of the dragon is conclusive as to 

 the origin of the details of form and appearance assigned 

 to that legendary beast, though the great size ascribed to 

 it and the terror associated with it is traceable to the great 

 snakes of the Far East — " drako " being the Greek word for 

 a serpent. And further, there is very good ground for con- 

 cluding that a long interval of geologic ages separates the 

 disappearance of the great extinct reptiles and the ptero- 

 dactyles from the appearance, on this globe, of the earliest 

 man-like apes, and no reason to suppose that the latter 

 could have handed on any knowledge of such extinct rep- 

 tiles to their descendants, even had they seen such creatures. 



