LESSON XXXVI.
SOME MERRY LITTLE FRIENDS.
“The heedless lizard in his gambols, peepedUpon the guarded nest, from out the flowers,But paid the instant forfeit of his life.”
“The heedless lizard in his gambols, peepedUpon the guarded nest, from out the flowers,But paid the instant forfeit of his life.”
“The heedless lizard in his gambols, peepedUpon the guarded nest, from out the flowers,But paid the instant forfeit of his life.”
“The heedless lizard in his gambols, peeped
Upon the guarded nest, from out the flowers,
But paid the instant forfeit of his life.”
—Montgomery.
In calling the hideous and ill-tempered alligatorel lagarto, the lizard, I think the Spanish explorers were guilty of a crying injustice to the lizard family, many of the members of which are the most delightful little creatures imaginable.
How often in Italy, seated by some ancient ruin or on a stone wall draped in rose vines, I have watched the merry little lizards, dressed in crimson, orange, or green, darting among the gray stones like flashes of living light, or running along the trailing vines like animated blossoms.
How often in the warm fragrant silence of the Tuscan hills, have I seen, thrust from the chinks of a pile of crumbling masonry, a pert little head, with a pair of diamond-bright eyes, watching me with intent interest. Friendly, graceful, entirely harmless, these little lizards seem to suitthe beauty-loving Italians. I have never seen the smallest or rudest Italian boy throw a stone at one of them, or try in any way to hurt them.
KNIGHTS ERRANT.
KNIGHTS ERRANT.
The lizards in our own country are no less friendly and beautiful, but it seems to me our people are less in harmony with nature than some others, and cherish more unjust traditions; for certainly among us the lizards are received in less hearty good-fellowship, and are very wrongly feared and esteemed harmful. But some people know how to treat my dear lizards with courtesy. A young friend in Florida has made pets of sundry emerald-green lizards. No creatures are more capable of maintaining an absolute stillness if they are suited with their circumstances. Like most of the cold-bloodedreptiles, they delight in warmth. My young friend often placed a little green lizard in the knot of lace at the throat of her evening dress, where, delighted with the softness and warmth of the lace and its owner’s neck, it would lie motionless for an entire evening. It was often mistaken for a piece of jeweller’s work in rich green enamel, upon the beauty of which her friends sometimes commented. One of these little lizards would remain for hours, twined bracelet-wise about my young friend’s wrist.
Inoffensive in disposition and unprovided with weapons of attack as lizards are, I have often admired nature’s protective methods in their behalf. Walking once in a wood in New Jersey, I was surprised to observe a fragment of the bark of a tree some two feet from me, run round the tree and appear on the farther side. Here was a little lizard of the exact color and markings of the bark of the tree which it frequented; it was only by its motion that it could be discovered when it clung against the trunk or branches. When at rest its little, bright, jet-black eyes were the only noticeable part of it. In that same wood I was equally startled by seeing a dead leaf run away from a heap of leaves as I approached, and a little twig in my path darted out of danger just as I was about to put my foot upon it. These also were lizards, with their slender bodies dressed in gray and brown, with little markings of black and white, a coat closely simulating the colors of dry and decaying vegetation.
While capable of lying for hours in entire quiet, still as if fashioned out of gems or metal, the lizard, when it moves, is remarkable for the swiftness of its motions: it darts with therapidity of an arrow; it seems to have no hesitancy, no afterthought, no change of mind; its spring is with the precision of entire certainty. Perhaps its sure-footedness has something to do with this; on wall or wood, tree, stone, grass, who ever saw a lizard slip or lose its footing?
In the lizard family there is a large variety in habits and appearance. We say that they are quick of motion—but then, what is more dull and sluggish than a hatteria? We assert that they are pretty and attractive, but what is more undeniably ugly in appearance than the horned toad of Texas, which is really a lizard? While in general the body of a lizard is slender and long, supported by four legs, in some species the legs are mere rudiments, and in others gone altogether. When present the feet and legs are sometimes weak, so that the body drags upon the ground.
The chameleons have their feet designed for grasping and climbing: the geckos of Asia have their feet changed into sucking disks, by which they can run up smooth walls; other lizards, which are chiefly aquatic, have feet formed for swimming; others still live in the ground and have hands fashioned like those of a mole, for digging.
As for homes, some lizards are tree-dwellers; others live on the ground, hiding in stone or rubbish heaps; some live in the ground in burrows; others abide by rivers, and spend most of their time in the water.
The lizards are citizens of the world, and are found in nearly all lands, but are most numerous and most brilliantly colored in hot countries. Wherever they are, some have so evidently the lizard characteristics that one who has ever seen anyof the family would not fail to recognize their relationships at once; but others, as for example, the horned toad of Texas, might be thought at first sight to belong to some quite different order of animals.
Some lizards have scales; others have no scales, but thick, granulated skins: some have no eyelids; others have eyelids, but their eyelids differ, some are nearly transparent, admitting light when they are closed; while yet other lizards, as the chameleons, have lids surrounding the entire eye, so that they can be drawn together and admit light at merely a tiny opening.
In cold and temperate lands lizards lie dormant during the winter months; this is called hibernating. At the return of spring they come forth from their hiding-places. In tropical countries, while there is no cold to drive the lizards to a state of torpor, they still sink into a long sleep, or half-conscious condition, which lasts for some weeks.
Nearly all lizards lay eggs, which are warmed into life by the sun, and the young ones are able to take care of themselves as soon as hatched. But even in this part of its life-history the lizard shows the changefulness of its race,—as variable in all things as a chameleon’s coat. Some lizards have living young, which they nurse with assiduous care.
A description of curious lizards would fill a volume; we can note only a few of the less well-known varieties. The geckos are a very interesting family, living chiefly in Asia. The “croaking gecko” is a lizard which distinguishes himself by breaking the spell of silence which lies upon his order, and making a loud noise almost as unpleasant asthat raised by a frog. The “flying gecko,” like the flying squirrel, has a wing-like expansion of the skin, and widely webbed feet, which enable it to support itself in the air as it leaps from tree to tree.
Another Oriental lizard is named “the frilled,” because he wears a large quilled collar, or ruff, all around his neck; upon his head is a crest deeply indented, and down his back from head to tail-tip a full ruffle like a cloak close folded, or a court train. In fact, whenever I have seen a frilled lizard I have had a laugh, not only at its truly pert and comic appearance, but because he seems such a jolly little caricature of stately Queen Bess in her head tire, ruff, farthingale, and court train. Then, too, other ideas come to heighten my mirth over a frilled lizard.
You must know that lizards’ tails are very brittle and not infrequently break off; when this happens the organ grows again just as a crab’s claw does. I wonder if the tail of the frilled lizard is apt to break off, and how long it takes such a cumbersome appendage to grow. Then, again, here is my other little joke over him: all lizards, as they grow cast their skins; toads and frogs do this also, and crabs cast their shells. The process is far from unusual, but the lizards like the toads swallow their worn-out garments, and how can my frilled lizard swallow such an amount of frilling and furbelow and flouncing! I should say he must choke! It would be as bad as being obliged to eat a birthday cake, candles, wreaths of flowers, and all. But when I stand before a frilled lizard, and laugh at all these queer notions concerning him, what does he do but bob and move his head andneck, until all his ruffles quiver and curl in a most threatening way, as if he meant to alarm me by his ferocious appearance. But he is really a timid creature, and would rather fly than fight. If you persecute him and drive him into a corner he will now and then turn at bay, and bite with some sharp little teeth that he has.
The “flying dragon” is another odd lizard, provided with an extended membrane to serve as a parachute, and by which he flies—a little. But why call the dear little beast a dragon? His colors are wonderfully beautiful, as if he had been dipped in a melted rainbow, or in the stuff that peacock’s plumes are made of. We think that dragons are fierce creatures, but this “flying-dragon” lizard lives in trees and daintily feeds upon gay-colored insects, as pretty as itself.
Another lizard is called the “horrid Moloch” from an ancient idol-god. This, with perhaps the exception of the “horned toad,” is one of the most hideous creatures known. It is covered with large conical projections over the entire body; its feet are clawed, and the projections develop into horns on the top of the head and neck. These projections are merely a thick growth of the skin, each tipped with horny plates, and entirely intended for defensive armor, but they give the creature a formidable appearance.
Still another variety of the lizard tribe is the pygopus of Australia, a lizard with only one pair of legs, and these are scaly and footless. Indeed they look merely like fleshy fins, and as the animal is very long and slim, and is covered with scales, at first sight it is almost impossible to consider it a lizard at all; it looks more like a snake.
The iguana is a lizard of tropical countries: it is large, harmless, perhaps we had better say it is useful; for the natives of the countries where it lives are fond of its flesh for food, and think as well of a fried or roasted iguana as we do of roast chicken.
Perhaps of the entire lizard family the most famous is the basilisk, about which much has been said and sung. The ancients had as many odd myths about the basilisk, as they had about the salamander. They said it was the king of all reptiles and wore a crown of gold: from its body diffused a poison which filled the air and killed not only animals but plants: the glance of its eye was so terrible that all living things fled from it—unless they fell dead on the spot, infected by its poison. The basilisk was afraid of only one living creature, and that creature was—a cock. The crowing of a cock filled the king of all reptiles with an awful terror.
But what is the truth about the basilisk? The creature has been investigated by modern science. What does science report of it? Science says the basilisk is one of the prettiest and gentlest little creatures known. It is crested, and that crest is the famous “golden crown” of the ancient story; it is clawed, because it is a tree-climber; its eyes are large, gentle, lustrous; its skin is striped; its toes are much like the toes of a bird; its food is insects; it has no poison, and as for a cock’s crow—it pays no heed to it whatever.
The Hilas are another family of lizards, embracing one with an ominous title, “The Gila monster.” This is not inaptly named, for it is uncouth in appearance, large, and,unlike most lizards, has a poisonous bite. Though this bite is painful, it is not fatal.
The skinks are earth-burrowing lizards, not prettily shaped but handsomely colored, and especially noted for wearing vivid shades of blue, a tint unusual in reptiles. The ancients had myths about the skink as well as about the poor basilisk. They said it poisoned cattle, and was ever on the alert to do harm to man or beast. The fact is the skink is alert only for slugs, insects, and worms which it eats. Nearly all lizards are insect-eaters, though in captivity they will eat cake and bread.