LIZARDS, FROGS AND TOADS.
Their Multitude within the Tropics—The Geckoes—Anatomy of their Feet—The Anolis—Their Love of Fight—The Chameleon—Its wonderful Changes of Colour—Its Habits—Peculiarities of its Organisation—The Iguana—The Teju—The Water-Lizards—Lizard Worship on the Coast of Africa—The Flying Dragon—The Basilisk—Frogs and Toads—The Pipa—The Bahia Toad—The Giant Toad—The Musical Toad—Brazilian and Surinam Tree-Frogs.
The equatorial regions may well be called the head-quarters of the lizard race, as these reptiles nowhere else appear in such a multitude of genera, species, and individuals. The stranger is struck with their numbers as soon as he sets his foot on a tropical shore, for on all sides, on the sands and in the forests, on banks and rocks, on the trees and on the ground, innumerable varieties of lizards are seen basking, rustling, crawling, climbing, or rapidly darting along.
The Geckoes might even claim to be ranked among the domestic animals, as they take up their abode in the dwellings of man, where they make themselves useful by the destruction of flies, spiders, and other noxious or disagreeable insects, which they almost always swallow entire, their throat being as broad as311 the opening of their jaws. During the day time they generally remain concealed in some dark crevice or chink, but towards evening they may be seen running along the steepest walls with marvellous rapidity, in keen pursuit of their prey, frequently standing still, nodding with their head, and uttering shrill tones, most likely by smacking their tongue against the palate. Their flattened flexible body seems to mould itself into the hollows, in which they often remain motionless for hours, and their generally dull colour harmonises so well with their resting-places, as to render them hardly distinguishable, a circumstance which answers the double purpose of masking their presence from the prey for which they lie in wait, and from the enemies that might be inclined to feast upon them. Among these, some of the smaller birds of prey—hawks and owls—are the most conspicuous, not to mention man, the arch-persecutor of almost every animal large enough to attract his notice.
GECKO.
How comes it that these nocturnal lizards, seemingly in defiance of the laws of gravitation, are thus able to adhere to ceilings or any other overhanging surfaces? An inspection of the soles of their broad feet will soon solve the enigma, for all their toes are considerably dilated on their margins, and divided beneath into a number of transverse lamellæ, parallel to each other, and generally without any longitudinal furrow. From these a fluid exudes which serves to attach the animal to the surface. They are also generally provided with sharp and crooked claws, retractile and movable, like those of a cat, and which render them good service in climbing trees.
In spite of their harmless nature, the Geckoes, their real utility being forgotten over imaginary grievances, nowhere enjoy a good reputation, probably in consequence of their ugliness and the wild expression of their large eyes. They are accused of tainting with a virulent secretion every object they touch, and of provoking an eruption on the skin merely by running over it—a popular prejudice which naturally causes many a poor inoffensive Gecko’s death. They abound all over the torrid zone, even in the remote islands of the Pacific, such312 as Tahiti and Vanikoro. Duméril, enumerates fifty-five different species, only two of which are indigenous in Southern Europe, while India monopolises no less than thirteen for her share.
Mr. Adams once witnessed in Borneo a desperate struggle between a Gecko and a large Tarantula spider. After a long and doubtful contest, the Gecko proved at length victorious, and succeeded in swallowing the insect, whose enormous legs, protruding from the lizard’s mouth, gave the animal the look of some monstrous cuttle-fish.
The graceful Anolis are peculiar to America. By the structure of their feet, provided with long unequal toes, they are related to the Geckoes, but are distinguished from them by a more slender form of body, by their extremely long thin tail, and a large neck-pouch, which dilates under the influence of excitement. These small and nimble creatures, the largest species seldom exceeding eight inches in length, are as touchy as fighting-cocks. On approaching them, they instantly blow up their pouch, open widely their diminutive jaws, and spring upon the aggressor, striving to bite him with their teeth, which, however, are too tiny to do much harm. Among each other they live in a perpetual state of warfare. As soon as one Anolis sees another, he makes a rapid advance, while his adversary awaits him with all the courage of a gallant knight. Before beginning the conflict, they make all sorts of menacing gestures, convulsively nodding their heads and puffing up their pouches, until finally they close in desperate struggle.
‘The meeting of these champions proud Seems like the bursting thunder-cloud.’
If they are of equal strength, the battle remains for some time undecided. At length the vanquished Anolis turns and runs away, but he may think himself fortunate if he escapes with the loss of his tail. Many of them are thus deprived of this ornamental appendage, which they voluntarily leave behind to avoid a still greater disaster, and then they become timid, melancholy, and fond of retirement, as if ashamed of being seen, only regaining their spirits when, by a wonderful power of reproduction, the amputated tail has been replaced by another.
Like many other lizards, the Anolis possesses the faculty of313 changing colour when under the influence of excitement, but of all animals, whether terrestrial or marine, none is more famous or remarkable in this respect than the Chameleon. It frequently happens that man, not satisfied with the wonders which Nature everywhere exposes to his view, adds to their marvels others of his own invention, and thus many a fable has been told about the Chameleon. It has been said, for instance, that it could emulate all the colours of the rainbow, but the more accurate observations of Hasselquist and other naturalists have shown that the whole change, which takes place most frequently when the Chameleon is exposed to full sunshine or under the influence of emotion, consists in its ordinary bluish-ash colour, turning to a green or yellowish hue with irregular spots of a dull red. Like many other reptiles, the Chameleon has the power of inflating its lungs and retaining the air for a long time so as one moment to appear as fat and well-fed as an alderman, and the next as lean and bony as a hungry disciple of the Muses. These alternating expansions and collapses seem to have a great influence on the change of colour, which, however, according to Milne-Edwards, is principally owing to the skin of the animal consisting of two differently coloured layers, placed one above the other, and changing their relative position under the influence of excitement.
CHAMELEON.
In our cold and northern regions the captive Chameleon cuts but a sorry figure: but in his own and sunny regions, which extend from southern Spain and Sicily to the Cape, and eastwards from Arabia and Hindostan to Australia, it is said to be by no means deficient in beauty, in spite of its strangely-formed carinated head, its enormously projecting eyes, and its granulated skin. Its manner of hunting for the little winged insects, that form its principal food, is very peculiar. Although the movements of its head are very limited, on account of the shortness of its neck, this deficiency is amply supplied by the wide range of its vision, each eye being able to move about in all directions independently of the other. Thus, while one of them attentively gazes upon the heavens,314 the other minutely examines the ground, or while one of them rolls in its orbit, the other remains fixed; nay, their mobility is so great, that without even moving its stiff head, this wonderful lizard, like Janus, the double-faced god of ancient Rome, can see at the same time all that goes on before and behind it. When an insect comes flying along, the Chameleon, perched on a branch, and half concealed between the foliage, follows it in all its movements by means of his powerful telescopes, until the proper moment for action appears. Then, quick as thought, he darts forth, even to a distance of five or six inches, his long fleshy glutinous tongue, which is moreover furnished with a dilated and somewhat tubular tip, and drawing it back with the same lightning-like velocity, engulphs his prey. This independence of the eyes is owing to the imperfect sympathy which subsists between the two lobes of the brain and the two sets of nerves which ramify throughout the opposite sides of its frame. Hence also one side of the body may be asleep while the other is vigilant, one may be green while the other is ash-blue, and it is even said that the Chameleon is utterly unable to swim, because the muscles of both sides are incapable of acting in concert.
Destined for an arboreal life, he is provided with organs beautifully adapted for supporting himself on the flexible branches; for, besides the cylindrical tail nearly as long as his body which he coils round the boughs, his five toes are united two and three by a common skin, so as to form, as it were, a pair of pincers or a kind of hand, admirably suited for a hold-fast.
IGUANA.
Among the Iguanas, a huge lizard tribe, characterised by a carinated back and tail, and a large denticulated gular pouch, the common or Great American Guana (Iguana tuberculata) deserves particular notice, as its white flesh is considered a great delicacy in Brazil and the West Indies. Notwithstanding its large size, for it not seldom attains a length of four or five feet, and the formidable appearance of its serrated back, it is in reality by no means of a warlike disposition, and so stupid that, instead of endeavouring to save itself by a315 timely flight, it merely stares with its large eyes, and inflates its pouch, while the noose is passing round its neck to drag it from its hole.
The Bahama Islands abound with Guanas, which form a great part of the subsistence of the inhabitants. They are caught by dogs, trained for the purpose, in the hollow rocks and trees where they nestle, and either carried alive for sale to Carolina, or kept for home consumption. They feed wholly on vegetables and food, particularly on a kind of fungus, growing at the roots of trees, and on the fruits of the different kinds of pine apples, whence their flesh most likely acquires its delicate flavour.
MONITOR.
The famous South American monitory lizard or Teju (Tejus monitor) is one of the largest and most beautiful of the whole race, as he measures no less than five feet from the snout to the tip of the tail, which is nearly twice as long as the body, while his black colour, variegated with bright yellow bands and spots, produces an agreeable and pleasing effect. The head is small, the snout gradually tapers, the limbs are slender, and the ta............