Natural History for the Use of Schools and Families (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1879 Excerpt: ... the Asiatic Archipelago. 327. The remaining families of Lizards have slender tongues, which are also more or less forked. The family of Monitors includes some of the largest of the Lizards. They are graceful and agile animals, living on large insects, eggs, birds, small Mammalia, reptiles, and fish. The Monitor of the Nile, which is about six feet long, is very destructive to the eggs and the young of the Crocodile. Its name of Monitor is derived from the hissing noise which it makes when it sees a Crocodile approaching, thus giving a warning to any one that happens to be near. There are Monitors, also, in this country, which give a similar warning of the approach of the Alligator. 328. The true Lizards are bright-eyed, slender, and lively little animals, with brilliant colors, especially those that live in verdant places. They are found in all warm countries except Australia and the Polynesian Islands. Some are natives, also, of temperate climates, passing the winter in a torpid state. The common Lizard, Fig. 162, is only about six inches long. In all the animals of this family the tail is exceedingly brittle, snapping off like glass even with a slight touch. It grows out again, however, and if the tail be cracked without being broken off, a new tail will spring from the crack, so that the animal will have thus a forked tail. 329. In the family of Snake Lizards we find a series of forms, in which we see a gradual transition from the order of Lizards to that of Serpents. In some of these animals there are four feet, as seen in Fig. 163, the Snake Lizard of the South of Africa. Others have but two feet. Others still have nothing but the mere rudiments of feet concealed in the skin. Of this latter kind is the Blindworm or Slow-worm. This animal, which is abo...