Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/413

Rh Both, however, became very familiar with me, but Pedro more than Pierre. They would run to me, when I called them, from one end of the room to the other; but I had to hold out a meal worm for bait to bring Pierre, while Pedro would come when my hands were empty. This was not because he was stupid, for when he saw that I had no worm, and I drew back, he would follow me like a dog, and would climb upon me when I stretched out my leg.

M. Dineur sent me the next year several lizards at different times, all of which were received with an ill grace. Among them was a much larger one than Pedro, which he disliked along with the others. One day this lizard took Pedro up and gave him a good shaking, after which Pedro was very cautious in his annoyances, and would run away the instant the other turned toward him.

One lizard was respected by Pedro. It had been sent me from Algeria by M. Forel, of Zurich, of a species we had not been able to identify—a tree liver, small but even fiercer than Pedro, and quite untamable. After devouring one fine specimen and half eating another, it became a marked terror to all the other members of the collection. Only one of my lizards was fond of gentles; the others spit them out as soon as they had tasted them. As we may say of a company of men, "So many heads, so many minds," so we might say, with a little variation, of my pets, "So many lizards, so many dispositions."

Several of my lizards have died; Pedro, a few months ago, of a disease that first affected the eyes, after having been with me five years. Pierre is still living with me, but has long had a tumor on his leg, has lost his tail once by my fault and twice by his own, and no longer likes honey, but shakes his head with an air of disgust when it is put upon his nose—a fact that shows that the taste of lizards, too, may change with the years.

As to the longevity of lizards: I do not think I am much mistaken when I suppose that they may live twenty or thirty years, or even longer. As they advance in years the plates of the head, smooth when they are young, show wrinkles and cavities which become more marked and numerous. Those with me have not grown much, and though I weighed them often—usually about once a month—the results were too irregular to permit of any conclusions being drawn from them. The weight of the larger lizards varied to the extent of thirty grammes, according as they were well or sparingly fed. Pierre now weighs one hundred and six grammes, another one one hundred and twenty-eight grammes, and another thirty-eight grammes—weights which are evidently proportional to the cubes of their lengths; but, according to my figures, they have not gained any in five years. I conclude from this that many years must have passed before the larger ones attained the weight they have.