Marvels of the Universe 1095 
calculated to terrify predacious birds and other enemies. In this case, however, the mechanism by 
which the terrifying action is produced is of a somewhat different, although kindred, type. For 
the Bearded Lizard is one of a group of about fourteen exclusively Australian and Tasmanian 
species, all of which are furnished with a strongly-developed transverse fold on the neck. 
Under the influence of excitement, this fold, at any rate in the case of the Jew Lizard, is 
capable of being inflated in such a manner as to produce the semblance of a frill comparable 
to that surrounding the whole neck of the Frilled Lizard. Indeed, in parts of the country 
where the latter species is unknown, the colonists are in the habit of applying its name to the 
Bearded Lizard. 
Both the Frilled and the Bearded Lizard belong to a family (technically known as the Agamide) 
which takes the place occupied in Europe by the typical lizards (Lacertide) ; the most distinctive 
feature of the former group being that the teeth are attached to the summits of the jaws instead 
of growing up on one side of an elevated parapet. 
The bearded species, which appears to range over the greater part of Australia, has the 
depressed form of body characteristic of ground-dwelling lizards in general, the base of the 
long tail being likewise flattened in a similar manner, although it is elsewhere cylindrical. In 
length a full-grown specimen grows to about twenty-one inches. As regards colour, the 
Bearded Lizard is either uniformly brown above or brown with symmetrically arranged darker 
markings; as a rule, there is a black spot on each side of the neck, the lower surface is brown 
or brownish, either of a uniform colour, or marked with darker or lighter spots, and in adult 
males, in which alone the fold attains full development, the throat is blackish. 
THE BOW-FIN. 
The Bow-fin is a large freshwater fish of American rivers. Both sexes unite to clear a considerable space of weeds, etc. in 
order to make a nursery-ground; but when the eggs have hatched the care of the young devolves upon the male entirely. He is 
about one and a half feet in length; the female about two feet. 
