. Animate creation : popular edition of "Our living world" : a natural history. Zoology; Zoology. THE EARED MEGALOCHILE. 87 pouch, but the skin of the throat is loose and plaited into a single cross fold towards its base. The body is rather flattened, and there is a longitudinal plait on each side. The tail is round and conical. In the restricted genus Agama—a word, by the way, which is not derived from any classical source, but is simply the popular name among the natives of Jamaica—the scales of the back are ilat and keeled, and the third and fourth toes are nearly equal in length.
. Animate creation : popular edition of "Our living world" : a natural history. Zoology; Zoology. THE EARED MEGALOCHILE. 87 pouch, but the skin of the throat is loose and plaited into a single cross fold towards its base. The body is rather flattened, and there is a longitudinal plait on each side. The tail is round and conical. In the restricted genus Agama—a word, by the way, which is not derived from any classical source, but is simply the popular name among the natives of Jamaica—the scales of the back are ilat and keeled, and the third and fourth toes are nearly equal in length. The throat is marked with one longitudiual fold, and one, or sometimes two transverse folds towards its base. Upon the sides of the neck and near the ears are curious groups of spiny scales. There is a slight crest along the back, the body is rather flattened, and the tail is long, tapering, and is covered with whorls of boldly projecting scales. In a very old work on natural history, it is stated that the Lizards which have their tails thus armed with sharp, spiny scales, make use of them in a rather singular fashion. They feed, according to these old writers, on cattle and other animals, and judging that from their small size they cannot bring an ox or a cow home after they have killed it, they jump on its back, cling tightly there with their feet, and by judicious lashing of the sharp tail, guide the animal to their home, where they give the fatal Cf^./^^^U^^^f-»t(^ SPUJOSE AGAMA.—4?amo colonorum. The Spinose Agama {Agama coJonorwm) is a well-known example of this genus, residing in JSTorthern Africa, and plentiful in Egypt. The color of this reptile is brown ; the scales on the sides of the neck are very long and shai-p, and those of the back are broad, boldly keeled, and sharply pointed, so that the creature presents rather a fonnidable appearance. The tail is long and powerful. There is a very remarkable Lizard belonging to this family, called the Eared Meg
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Keywords: ., bookauthorbr, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology
