File:Half hours with fishes, reptiles, and birds (1906) (14565546210).jpg

Identifier: halfhourswithfis00hold (find matches)
Title: Half hours with fishes, reptiles, and birds
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Holder, Charles Frederick, 1851-1915
Subjects: Zoology
Publisher: New York, American Book Co
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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lmostcompletely grown, the original tails having been lost in allprobability while endeavoring to deceive some enemy, anddoubtless many a road runner had been forced to put upwith a tail instead of a lizard. The little gecko (Fig. 69)throws off its tail at the slightest warning, and as it THE LIZARDS 105 strikes the ground, leaping and tumbling about, its ownerhas been seen to turn, rush at it and devour it, thinkingit a worm possi-bly, paying atribute to thesuccess of itsown device oftail throwing. The lizards areremarkable forthe rapidity oftheir move-ments, and whenin a tree it isalmost impossi-ble to followthem, so quicklydo they moveor adapt them-selves to thecolor of thelimb or leafupon which theyrest. This is par-ticularly true ofthe lizard shownin Figure 70,the American chameleon. I once kept several of theselittle creatures, and the marvelous tints and colors of greenand brown they would assume were a constant delight.They became very tame, ate flies and various insects from.
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 70. —AmericanChameleon. 106 THE LIZARDS the hand, and ran over me with impunity. One wouldsometimes rest on my hand as I wrote, its cunning eyeswatching every movement. The skeleton of the lizard is shown in Figure 71, andan examination will show that it is decidedly an advanceupon that of the snakes. The jaws are not extensible asin the latter, hence the lizard is confined to small insects,which are crushed by its sharp conical teeth. The tongue

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