THE DRAMA OF LIFE 47 



and the lizard becomes entirely hidden. The nostrils are 

 kept either at the surface of the ground or near enough to 

 the surface so that breathing is possible '. Sometimes the 

 spines are left protrudiag above the ground like dry thorns. 



Stranger even than the circlet of horns and the wonder- 

 fully perfect power of colour-change is the habit of * shed- 

 ding tears of blood '. It was for this that the Mexicans 

 called the Phrynosome the ' sacred toad ' ; it is to this 

 that the boys of San Diego refer when they say they saw 

 the creature ' spit blood '. As there are the best of physio- 

 logical reasons why it can neither ' weep blood ' nor ' spit 

 blood ', what is it that happens ? The eyes are tightly 

 shut, the eyelids swell to twice or thrice their normal size, 

 and a fine jet of blood shoots out for several inches from 

 beneath the upper eyelid. The whole phenomenon is 

 startliag and quite worthy of the strange creature. Some 

 say that the haemorrhage is associated with the excite- 

 ment of the breeding season, but this lacks proof. So far 

 as experiments go, they seem to indicate that the rush of 

 blood is associated with shock and fright. The eyelids are 

 rich in blood-vessels, and what happens is fiist a congestion 

 and then probably the rupture of a blood-vessel. It may 

 be compared to bleeding at the nose, but the point is that 

 it has been regularized. One physiologist has suggested 

 that the flooding of the head sinuses, the elevation of the 

 blood pressure, and the jet of blood, while associated with 

 panic and excitement, may also have a frightening effect 

 deterrent to enemies. 



The homed lizards are for the most part insectivorous, 

 catching living ants, beetles, and flies on the end of the 

 viscid tongue. ' Why the animal is never bothered by 

 being stung internally by the ants it swallows alive seems 



