Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/115

Rh also is short, and the tail seldom longer than the body. From these peculiarities the Agamas are sometimes called frog-lizards. The whole head, body, and limbs, are commonly covered with lozenge-form or hexagonal scales, which are often prolonged into little spines, which bristle up formidably, when the body is distended with air.

Some of the species, indeed, are so armed with spinous processes of various forms and lengths, as

to present a truly frightful appearance; such as, for example, the Moloch Lizard of Australia (Moloch horridus).

“Some of the most singular shapes among the existing races of reptiles,” observes Mr. Swainson,