The beautiful coral-snake (Elaps corallinus) is fondled by the Brazilian ladies, but the domestication of the dreaded cobras as protectors in the place of dogs, mentioned by Major Skinner, on undoubtedly good authority,[26] is still more remarkable. They glide about the house, going in and out at pleasure, a terror to thieves, but never attempting to harm the inmates.
The Tree-snakes offer many beautiful examples of the adaptation of colour to the animal’s pursuits, which we have already had occasion to admire in our brief review of the tropical insect world. They are frequently of an agreeable green or bluish hue, so as hardly to be distinguishable from the foliage among which they seek their prey, or where they themselves are liable to be seized upon by their enemies. They are often able vertically to ascend the smoothest trunks and branches, in search of squirrels and lizards, or to rifle the nests of birds.
The Water-snakes which infest some parts of the tropical seas, though far from equalling in size the vast proportions of the fabulous sea-serpent, are very formidable from their venomous bite. They have the back part of the body and tail very much compressed and raised vertically, so as to serve them as a paddle with which they rapidly cleave the waters.
TOAD AND ANOLIS.
CHAPTER XXIV.
LIZARDS, FROGS AND TOADS.
Their Multitude within the Tropics—The Geckoes—Anatomy of their Feet—The Anolis—Their Love of Fight—The Chameleon—Its wonderful Changes of Colour—Its Habits—Peculiarities of its Organisation—The Iguana—The Teju—The Water-Lizards—Lizard Worship on the Coast of Africa—The Flying Dragon—The Basilisk—Frogs and Toads—The Pipa—The Bahia Toad—The Giant Toad—The Musical Toad—Brazilian and Surinam Tree-Frogs.
The equatorial regions may well be called the head-quarters of the lizard race, as these reptiles nowhere else appear in such a multitude of genera, species, and individuals. The stranger is struck with their numbers as soon as he sets his foot on a tropical shore, for on all sides, on the sands and in the forests, on banks and rocks, on the trees and on the ground, innumerable varieties of lizards are seen basking, rustling, crawling, climbing, or rapidly darting along.
The Geckoes might even claim to be ranked among the domestic animals, as they take up their abode in the dwellings of man, where they make themselves useful by the destruction of flies, spiders, and other noxious or disagreeable insects, which they almost always swallow entire, their throat being as broad as the opening of their jaws. During the day time they generally remain concealed in some dark crevice or chink, but towards evening they may be seen running along the steepest walls with marvellous rapidity, in keen pursuit of their prey, frequently standing still, nodding with their head, and uttering shrill tones, most likely by smacking their tongue against the palate. Their flattened flexible body seems to mould itself into the hollows, in which they often remain motionless for hours, and their generally dull colour harmonises so well with their resting-places, as to render them hardly distinguishable, a circumstance which answers the double purpose of masking their presence from the prey for which they lie in wait, and from the enemies that might be inclined to feast upon them. Among these, some of the smaller birds of prey—hawks and owls—are the most conspicuous, not to mention man, the arch-persecutor of almost every animal large enough to attract his notice.