SCALED REPTILES— LIZARDS. 401 



than a living animal. Measuring about eight inches in length, and having 

 a depressed toad-like body and rather short tail, the moloch is covered all 

 over above with large conical spines, which attain their greatest develop- 

 ment immediately over the eyes and on the forepart of the back. It 

 frequents sandy districts, is slow in its movements, and may be frequently 

 seen abroad in the full sunlight. That its spiny armour renders it perfectly 

 safe from all ordinary attacks, may be considered perfectly certain ; and 

 it is clear that the creature's motto is defence and not defiance, as it is 

 perfectly harmleas. It has the power of slowly changing its colour to a cer- 

 tain extent in accordance with its surroundings ; and its chief nutriment is 

 formed by ants, although it will also eat vegetable substances. Thorny devil 

 or spiny lizard is the name given to this reptile by the colonists. 



The name iguana is one of those terms constantly misapplied in popular 

 zoology, and it is very frequently given to the monitors of India and 

 Australia. As a matter of fact, most of the members of the 

 great iguana tribe are confined to the New World, where The Iguana 

 they take the place of the Old World Agamidce, which are Tribe. — Family 

 wanting. There are, however, a few outlying iguanas in the Icjuanidce. 

 Old World, two genera being found in Madagascar, while a 

 third occurs in the Friendly Islands and Fiji. In many points of their organisa- 

 tion the Icjuanidce are closely related to the A gnmidce ; but a ready means of 

 distinction between the two groups is afforded by the dentition. Whereas 

 the latter have the dentition of the acrodont type, in the former it is pleuro- 

 dont ; and a further difference is to be found in the nearly uniform size and 

 form of all the teeth in the iguanas. Very frequently the teeth have lancet- 

 shaped crowns, with serrated edges ; but in some rare instances they are 

 divided into three distinct cusps. Iguanas — of which there are fifty different 

 generic modifications — present a curious parallelism to the A cjamidce in their 

 structure and habits, doubtless due to the fact that they have to fill all the 

 situations in the New World occupied by the different members of the latter 

 in the Eastern Hemisphere. Whereas, however', there is no flying iguana, 

 this group contains a marine type, which has no representative among the 

 allied family. Nearly all the American forms are inhabitants of the warmer 

 regions of the New World ; most are insect-eaters, a few are vegetarians. 



The beautiful iguanas of the American genus Anolis may be regarded as 

 the western analogues of the Oriental tree-lizards. These are long-tailed 

 arboreal species, with a, pyramidal head, moderately long neck, a slender 

 body of variable form, elongated hind-limbs, and large feet with toes of 

 unequal length, in which the middle joints are expanded, and the claws 

 long and elevated. The throat is ornamented with an appendage, which is 

 generally brightly coloured in the males ; but there is no crest on the back 

 and neck. The teeth are distinctly three-lobed. More than a hundred 

 different kinds of these lizards are known to science, many of which take up 

 their residence in human dwellings, where they hunt for their insect prey, 

 quite undisturbed by the proximity of the owners. Like their Oriental re- 

 presentatives in the Agamulce, they have the power of changing the colour of 

 their skin even more rapidly and decisively than the chamieleons. As tlie 

 species of Anolis represent Gcdotes in the Old World family, so the basilisks 

 (Basiliscm) simulate the sail-tailed lizard of the Malayan Islands. The 

 American forms have, however, gone one better than their Old World proto- 

 type, for whereas in the latter the sail-like membranous expansion is confined 

 to the upper surface of the tail, in the males of the former a similar vertical 

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