The Western World: Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North; and South AmericaKingston, William Henry Giles
History
The Western World: Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North; and South America
Kingston, William Henry Giles
Natural history -- North America; Natural history -- South America
Altogether, it has a very venomous look about it; but is truly one of
the most harmless of creatures, not being a snake at all, though it goes
by the name of the glass snake. It is in reality a lizard; though--not
having the vestige of limbs--it is appropriately called the
lizard-snake. It has, however, eyelids; and the tongue is not sheathed
at the base, as is the case with serpents; while its solid jaw-bones do
not enable it to open its mouth, as they are capable of doing. It has a
tail, twice the length of its body, from which it can with difficulty be
distinguished.
Its peculiar characteristic is its extraordinary fragility--arising from
the muscles being articulated quite through the vertebras. If struck
with a switch, the body is easily broken in two or more parts.
Sometimes, indeed, the creature breaks off its own tail, by a remarkable
habit it possesses of contracting the muscles with great force. The
common English blind-worm breaks to pieces in a similar manner.
THE ANOLIS.
Among the true lizards is a pretty little creature known as the green
Carolina anolis. It is especially daring; not only refusing to run away
at the approach of man, but will enter houses, and run about the room in
search of flies. It is very active, climbing trees, and leaping from
branch to branch in its search for insects, of which it destroys great
numbers. It is about seven inches long--mostly of a beautiful green
above, with white below; and it has a white throat-pouch, which
generally appears with a few bars of red upon it, but when inflated the
colour spreads over the whole surface.
Mr Gosse describes one which he saw running about among the branches of
a sassafras, just as it had seized a grasshopper. He caught the
creature, which was then of a green hue; but, on placing it on an old
log, the colour changed to a brownish-black. He was told, that if
placed on a green leaf it would again become green. In a short time,
after remaining in the sunshine, it changed once more to green. Again
it became almost black; and shutting it up in a desk, after half an hour
he was no less surprised than delighted to see the lizard of a brilliant
green, the line down the back only being blackish.
When the animal is excited, the pouch, swelling out, becomes of a
crimson colour. It is covered with excessively small--scarcely
perceptible--scales.
These little creatures are at times very quarrelsome, and will fight
together, frequently both the combatants losing their tails in the
contest; while their pouches swell out as they leap at each other and
struggle furiously.
THE CROWNED TAPAYAXIN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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