68z 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



descriptive literature develops beyond measure during the period 

 of decadence, as has been observed in China and India, where the 

 excess and often the insipidity of the word-paintings overwhelm 

 the chief subject of the poems. This belated taste for description 

 seems, therefore, to be a characteristic symptom. It indicates that 

 literary vigor is exhausted ; that the writer has few ideas, or is 

 restrained from expressing them ; or that political liberty is dead, 

 social sympathy is extinct, and intelligence is reduced. — Trans- 

 lated for The Popular Science Monthly from the Revue Mensuelle 

 de VEcole d' Anthropologic 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LIZARDS. 



By M. J. DELBGEUF. 



I PUBLISHED two articles in February and October, 1891, 

 telling of two ocellated lizards which I had captured in 

 May, 1890 — one at Port Bon, on the borders of Spain, the other 

 on the banks of the Tarn, near Peyrdean, France. I described 

 their characteristic differences at length, telling how the former 

 lizard was bold, snappish, suspicious, and stupid ; and the latter 

 was timid, gentle, confiding, and straightforward. I told how 

 the French lizard having been lost for twenty-six days in May 

 of the following year, the Spaniard refused all food; and how, 

 his companion having been found again, he went at once to 

 catching flies. I praised their good understanding with one an- 

 other, and their fellowship, which, however, did not' extend to 

 self-denial ; and I related with great pleasure how, by forbear- 

 ance and kind attention, I finally established excellent relations 

 between myself and the Spaniard, while only a few delicate atten- 

 tions were needed to gain the heart of the French lizard from the 

 very first. 



I concluded that the animals which we are accustomed to re- 

 gard as in the lowest degree of intelligence among vertebrates, and 

 which we are apt to suppose are all cast in a common mold, offer 

 notable differences in character and docility. Yet, since those 

 which are under consideration here are adults, they have neces- 

 sarily each received the share of force and cunning which was 

 indispensable to enable them to come safely out of the struggle 

 for existence. Whence do their peculiar qualities come, and what 

 use do they make of them ? In wild animals, whose mode of life 

 presupposes a well- determined combination of native qualities 

 which age can only develop and strengthen, should not differences 

 tend to disappear ? 



What I have to relate now is not less curious than my former 



