Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/831

Rh the acrodont iguanans and by others with the agamians, and of some of which we give representations.

There live in the forests of India, the Malay Archipelago, and the Philippine Islands, lizards, whose speckled dress and odd forms have long made them objects of interest to collectors. They live exclusively on insects, which they hunt with extreme agility of pursuit along the trunks and among the branches of trees. In whatever spot they may be hiding, their variegated liveries of gray and brown, speckled with black, yellow, or green, mask them effectively and cause them to pass unperceived in the cracks or among the inequalities of the bark. Squatting under this cover, they await the coming of some insect within reach of them; or they may be seen running rapidly and suddenly covering considerable space, by a kind of flight, to place themselves upon another tree or fix themselves near a vine. Nature has been, in fact, pleased to facilitate the movements of these lively and graceful beings by an ingenious artifice. By the aid of their parachute, dragons can execute leaps in the air of considerable length, and pass from one tree to another as if by flying. But it must not be supposed that they can fly after the manner of birds. They can descend rapidly, describing a large parabola, sometimes almost a horizontal, but can not fly upward.

I have frequently observed these pretty little saurians in Java. The first time I saw one I succeeded in shooting him with a smallbored gun loaded with fine shot. When I picked my victim up I was somewhat surprised to find that I had a dragon; for its jerky and irregular flight along a large tree had caused me to suppose that it was some kind of a grasshopper or moth, which I could not get in any other way than by shooting.

The dragons, as Cuvier says, fly by means of their ribs. Their first six pairs of false ribs, instead of being attached to the sternum, are drawn out and prolonged, so as to constitute the framework of a kind of umbrella, the covering of which is formed of a wide membrane making a fold in the skin of the flanks. This membrane is independent of the limbs. When at rest, it is folded up along each flank; but it can be quickly unfolded and spread out in case of need. The name patagium has been given to it. The head and neck are ornamented with crests and dewlaps, often variegated with brilliantly defined colors; and a long tail gives them a singular gait which is not without grace.

The harmless little flying lizards inhabit forests and garden trees; and nothing is more amusing than to watch their manoeuvres, when, not aware that they are observed, they execute their gambols in the full flush of freedom. Running swiftly along the trees, stopping instantaneously, snapping up an insect or retiring