*34 
LIZARDS. 
he may desire, although the rapidity of their movements is so great that some 
practice is required to effect their capture. Their food is entirely of a vegetable 
nature; and to gather this the basilisks are astir with the first rays of dawn, 
while during the heat of the day they prefer to rest among the most leafy boughs. 
At the slightest sound, they raise the head, inflate the throat, and elevate the 
crest; and as soon as the bright, yellow-irised eye detects the presence of a foe, 
the basilisks throw themselves instantaneously into the water above which they 
are usually reposing. In swimming, the head and neck are raised, the fore-limbs 
serve the part of propellers, while the crested tail acts as a rudder; hence the 
common name of “ ferrymen ” is applied to these lizards. At the end of April or 
beginning of May the female lays from twelve to eighteen eggs in some cranny at 
the foot of a tree, where they are left for the sun to hatch. 
Ridge-Headed Nearly allied to the basilisks are the three species of ridge-headed 
Lizards. lizards ( Corythophanes ) of Central America, characterised by the head 
being prolonged backwards into a bony, helmet-like projection, while the tail is 
devoid of a crest, although the neck and back are provided with a low appendage 
of this nature. On the throat there is both a pouch and a transverse fold. The 
most interesting of the three species is the one named G. hernanclezi, in which the 
head is crowned with a helmet-like prolongation so like that of the chamgeleon that 
the creature is commonly spoken of under that name by the Mexicans. Like the 
anolis lizards, these reptiles are in the constant habit of changing their somewhat 
sombre colours; and it has been observed in a captive specimen that whereas the 
patch on the pouch was white during the day, at night it assumed, like the other 
light parts of the body, a blackish hue. 
While agreeing with the basilisks in having the plates on the 
Sbilt;6u Lizards. 
under surface of the toes distinctly keeled, there are a number of 
genera in the family distinguished by the absence of any backward prolongation 
of the crown of the head. Among these we select for mention the stilted lizards, 
specially characterised by the large size of the occipital shield of the head, the 
presence of a vacuity in the breast-bone, the small or moderate-sized scales of the 
tail, the long and highly curved toes, and the presence of tusk-like teeth in 
the jaws. There are but two representatives of the genus, both of which have 
a wide distribution in South America. The figured species (Uraniscodon umbra), 
which attains a length of about a foot, two-thirds of which are occupied by the 
long and cylindrical tail, has a short and frog-like head, raised into curved ridges 
over the eyes, with the muzzle very blunt, and the lower jaw longer than the 
upper. The skin of the neck is curiously puckered interiorly, the folds forming 
a pair of pouches on the sides, although there is no pouch on the throat. In 
form, the body is at most but slightly compressed, with a low and slightly serrated 
crest running from the nape down to the back; and the uniform scales of the 
back are small and overlapping, and those on the top of the head enlarged. The 
long and bent toes are markedly compressed, and are furnished with short but 
strong claws. In coloration this species is one of the handsomest of its tribe. The 
general ground-colour of the upper-parts is reddish or purplish brown, ornamented 
with more or less distinctly defined blackish transverse bars; a broad black band 
traverses the fold in front of the shoulder, and may extend across the nape; while 
