PARACHUTING 



287 



Still more remarkable inhabitants of the same part of the 

 world are the curious little lizards known as Flying- Dragons 

 (species of Draco). But they are by no means so formidable 

 as the name suggests, for the head and body are only some 

 5 inches in length, to which must be added a slender tail of 

 about the same degree of elongation. These parachute organs 

 consist of a pair of large wing-like folds at the sides of the 

 flattened body, and these are supported by five or six pairs of 

 the hinder ribs, which are of extraordinary length. The " wings " 

 can be either expanded or folded 

 up at will. These little dragons 

 are very attractively coloured. 

 In one well-known species 

 {Draco volans), for example, the 

 upper side is brown, with dark 

 bands and flecks, and gleams 

 like metal, while the parachute 

 folds are black and orange. 

 The little pouch (gular sac) 

 under the throat affords an 

 addition to the colour-scheme, 

 for it is blue in the female and 

 orange in the male. As to the 

 habits of these lizards, Gadow 

 (in The Cambridge Natural 

 History) makes the following 

 remarks : — " The ' Flying- Dra- 

 gons ' use their wings as para- 

 chutes, but their sailing powers 

 are said to be very moderate, 

 moving the wings, but when at rest upon a branch amidst the 

 luxurious vegetation, and in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 gorgeously-coloured flowers, which partly conceal them by their 

 likeness, they greatly resemble butterflies, especially since they 

 have the habit of opening and folding their pretty wings." 



Amphibians (Amphibia) as Parachutists. — A few species of 

 tree-frog native to the East Indies are sufficiently specialized in 

 connection (?) with the parachuting habit as to have earned the 

 name of Flying- Frogs. The first known creature of this sort 

 [Rkacophorus nigropalmatus) was seen in Borneo by Wallace, who 



Fig. 826. — Fringed Gecko [Piychozomi hovialocephalum) 



Certainly they do not fly by 



