LIZARDS AND CROCODILES AT THE ZOO 267 
form and beauty of colouring, among the inhabitants 
of the Zoo. It sometimes happens that the chame- 
leons die in winter before the summer stock has 
arrived to take their place, as most of those brought 
from the Cape die when the vessels enter the cold 
atmosphere of the English Channel. But the 
“ horned lizards” of California are hardly less amusing 
in form and habits than the true chameleons. Shaped 
like a miniature sole, their backs bristling with pinkish 
spikes like the thorns of a briar-rose, they bury 
themselves in the sand at the bottom of their cage 
until the head only projects, presenting an exact 
resemblance to one of the thorny “ burrs ” which 
lie scattered on the Californian desert. If possible, 
the lizard remains still until the spiders and other 
insects walk unsuspecting into its mouth ; but at the 
Zoo, where insects are scarce, the horned lizards have 
to some extent abandoned concealment, and rush upon 
their prey with a suddenness and ferocity most amus- 
ing in such tiny creatures. The writer watched a 
violent contest between a horned lizard and a “ gecko ” 
for the possession of a mealworm, which was wriggling 
on the sand. The “ gecko,” one of the swift and 
agile little lizards which are so common in Southern 
Europe, was darting down from a branch above just 
as the horned lizard made its spring, and each seized 
the mealworm at opposite ends. In the tug-of-war 
which followed, the ground-lizard proved an easy 
winner ; and the “ gecko ” retired defeated, to finish 
pulling off its old skin, which hung loosely round 
