The _dragon_ is usually depicted with a serpentine body, sharp ears, a barbed tongue and tail, strong leathern wings armed with sharp points, and four eagles' feet, strongly webbed; but there are many modifications of this form. "Of fancy monsters, the winged, scaly, fiery dragon is by far the most poetical fabrication of antiquity. To no word, perhaps, are attached ideas more extraordinary, and of greater antiquity, than to that of dragon. We find it consecrated by the religion of the earliest people, and become the object of their mythology. It got mixed up with fable, and poetry, and history, till it was universally believed, and was to be found everywhere but in nature.[122] In our days nothing of the kind is to be seen, excepting a harmless animal hunting its insects. The light of these days has driven the fiery dragon to take refuge among nations not yet visited by the light of civilization. The _draco volans_ is a small lizard, and the only reptile possessing the capacity of flight. For this purpose it is provided on each side with a membrane between the feet, which unfolds like a fan at the will of the animal, enabling it to spring from one tree to another while pursuing its food. It is a provision similar to that of the flying squirrel, enabling it to take a longer leap."[123] The annexed cut represents a _dragon volant_, as borne in the arms of Raynon of Kent, and the _draco volans_ of the zoologists. A fossil flying lizard has been found in the lias of Dorsetshire, which, to employ the words of Professor Buckland, is "a monster resembling nothing that has ever been seen or heard of upon earth, excepting the dragons of romance and heraldry." [Illustration] Considering the hideous form and character of the dragon, it is somewhat surprising to find him pourtrayed upon the banner and the shield as an honourable distinction; unless he was employed by way of trophy of a victory gained over some enemy, who might be symbolically represented in this manner. The dragon often occurring at the feet of antient monumental effigies is understood to typify _sin_, over which the deceased has now triumphed; and the celebrated monster of this tribe slain by our patron saint, St. George, was doubtless a figurative allusion to a certain pestilent heresy which he vehemently resisted and rooted out. Favine, on the Order of Hungary, remarks that the French historians speak of Philip Augustus 'conquering the dragon' when he overcame Otho IV, who bore a dragon as the standard of his empire.[124] It has been suggested that the design of commanders in depicting monsters and wild beasts upon their standards was to inspire the enemy with terror.[125] [Illustration]