Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/118

110 to the form of a perfect sphere, its broad flat head, its skin covered with small tubercles or warts interspersed among the scales, and the faculty which it possesses of distending its body with air, and to a certain degree assuming different shades of colour, have caused it to be sometimes compared to a toad, and sometimes to a chameleon; but the truth is, that it has no actual relation or affinity to either of these animals, but is indebted solely to its naturally disgusting aspect for the calumnies which the early Spanish writers have heaped upon it. The scales of this species are small, pointed, and rough on the upper parts, smooth and flat beneath; on various parts of the back they are elevated into insulated spines, ranged in six or eight longitudinal rows, but without much regularity: the ground-colour is dark grey above, with irregular brown blotches, and beneath yellowish red, speckled with small black spots. The legs are short and thick, and the toes of equal length both before and behind. The Tapayaxin inhabits the mountainous and rocky parts of South America, from the Isthmus of Darien to Patagonia; according to Ray, it is capable of domestication, and even recognises and shews a kind of attachment to those who feed it.”