514 Reptiles. 
vorous, but feed on insects, the eggs of birds, and other 
animal matter, as well as on plants. They will occa- 
sionally take to the water, and seem to swim with ease. 
Notwithstanding its repulsive and even frightful appear- 
ance, the Iguana is perfectly harmless and inoffensive. 
THE FLYING LIZAED, OR DRAGON. 
(Draco vohns.) 
The Flying Dragons, those terrible creatures described 
by the older naturalists, are undoubtedly fabulous and, 
indeed, impossible creatures, and either entirely pro- 
ducts of the imagination of the vulgar, or founded upon 
specimens manufactured for the express purpose of 
taking in the naturalist, who, in old times, was a little 
too ready to believe in wonders of this kind. The wings 
of a bat attached to a body and legs made up from half 
a dozen animals would furnish a capital Dragon in 
former times. Modern naturalists apply the name of 
Dragon to some little lizards inhabiting the East Indies, 
and which have none of those terrible qualities ascribed 
to the fabled monsters of antiquity. They are related to 
the Iguanas, but have on each side of the body a mem- 
branous expansion, stiffened by the prolongation into it 
of the first six false ribs ; this acts as a sort of parachute, 
and enables the little creatures, not to fly, but to leap or 
glide through the air to considerable distances' between 
one tree and another. They live entirely in trees, and 
feed on insects. 
