The winners in life's race

by Arabella B. Buckley

Skeleton of a Lizard.

sp, Spinous processes, which in the tortoise are flattened into plates; r, ribs; s, shoulder bone; a, upper arm; e, elbow; fa, forearm; h, hip bone; th, thigh bone; k, knee; l, bones of the leg; q, quadrate bone between upper and lower jaw.

And now, if we leave the tortoises and turn to the Lizards, we find them meeting life’s difficulties in quite a different way. Here are no sluggish movements, horny beaks, and strong boxes; but bright-eyed creatures covered with shining scales, their mouths filled with sharp teeth, with which even the small lizards can bite fiercely, and having nimble lissome bodies, which wriggle through the grass or up the trees in the twinkling of an eye. Yet the lizards, as we have seen, are formed on the same plan as the tortoise, and their scales are thickenings in their outer skin, just as his tortoise-shell is, and not true scales like those of fish. They have learned to hold their own by sharpness and quickness, and are probably the most intelligent of all the cold-blooded animals, though even they are only lively in a jerky way under the influence of warmth. They can breathe more easily than the tortoise, for their ribs rise and fall, drawing in and driving out the air they need; but they are still cold-blooded, for their heart has only three chambers. It is when the bright sun is shining that they love to dart about, chasing the insects upon which they feed; and the joints of their backbone move so easily upon each other that they can twist and turn in all imaginable ways, keeping their heads twisted in a most comical manner when on the watch for flies. Nay, the very vertebræ themselves are so loosely made that they can split in half, and if you seize a lizard by the tail he will most likely leave it in your hand and grow another.

They can live both in dry sandy places, where larger animals cannot find food and water, and in thick underwood, and marshy unhealthy places, where more quickly-breathing animals would be poisoned by the fetid air; and we find them swarming in hot countries in spite of enemies, their scales protecting them from the rough surface of the rocks and trees on which they glide, their feeble legs scarcely ever lifting their body from the object on which they glide rather than walk.

Fig. 24.

Gecko and Chamæleon.

The true land-creepers, like our little Scaly Lizard,[81] lurk in dry woody places, and on heaths and banks, darting out on the unwary insects. Many of them lay their eggs in the warm sand or earth, but the Scaly lizard carries them till they are ready to break, so that the young ones come out lively and active as the eggs are laid. Others have taken to the water, and among these are the Monitors of Africa and Australia, which feed on frogs and fish and crocodiles’ eggs, and are so strong and fierce that they often drag larger animals under the water. Some are tree and wall climbers, such as the “Geckos,” with thick tongues and dull mottled skins, and they have sharp claws and suckers under their toes, so that they can hang or walk upside down, on ceilings or overhanging rocks, or on the smooth trunks of trees; and they love to chase the insects in the hot sultry nights, tracking them to their secret haunts. They are far more active than the large gentle Iguanas or Tree-Lizards of South America, from a few inches to five feet long, which may be seen among the branches of the trees of Mexico, their beautiful scales glistening in the sun as they feed on the flowers and fruit. They swarm on all sides in those rich forest regions, scampering over the ground, and then clinging with their claws to the tree-bark as they gradually mount up into the dense foliage; and they have many advantages, for not only can they climb to great heights out of the reach of beasts of prey, but they can also swim well, having been known to fling themselves from the overhanging branches into the water below when danger was near. They do not, moreover, descend as gracefully as the “Flying Lizards” of the East Indies, which have a fold of skin stretched from the lengthened ends of their hinder ribs, so that they sail from branch to branch as they chase the butterflies and other insects.

But the most curious of all tree-lizards is the Chamæleon, with his soft warty skin, his round skin-encircled eyes, his bird-like feet, and his clinging tail. He never hurries himself, but putting forward a leg, at the end of which is a foot whose claws are divided into two bundles, he very deliberately grasps the branch, as a parrot does, loosens his tail, draws himself forward, and then fastens on again with tail and claws; while his eyes, each peering out of a thick covering skin, roll round quite independently of each other, one looking steadily to the right, while the other may be making a journey to the left. What is he looking for? Just ahead of him on a twig sits a fly, but he cannot reach him yet. So once more a leg comes out, and his body is drawn gradually forwards. Snap! In a moment his mouth has opened, his tube-like tongue, with clubbed and sticky tip, has darted out and struck the fly, and carried it down his throat, while the chamæleon looks as if he had never moved. It is not difficult to imagine that such a slow-moving animal, whose natural colour is a brownish green like the leaves among which he moves, would often escape unseen from his enemies. And when light falls upon him, his tint changes by the movement of the colour-cells in his skin, which seem to vary according to the colour of the objects around, whenever he is awake and can see them.