File:Image from page 153 of "Water reptiles of the past and present" (1914) (14750033516).jpg

Identifier: waterreptilesofp1914will Title: Water reptiles of the past and present Year: 1914 (1910s) Authors: Williston, Samuel Wendell, 1851-1918 Subjects: Aquatic reptiles Publisher: Chicago, Ill., The University of Chicago Press Contributing Library: Boston Public Library Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Public Library

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Text Appearing Before Image: birds, other reptiles, frogs, andinsects; a few only are herbivorous, such as the iguanas, whichare often used for human food. Nearly all lizards are oviparous,laying from two to thirty eggs. In size the great majority are small,less than a foot in length; but some, such as the monitors andiguanas, reach a length of from four to six feet, or even more, andcertain extinct monitors of India are known to have attained alength of thirty feet. They are, for the most part, slender, grace-ful, prettily marked, and quite inoffensive creatures. A few areshort, flat, or stumpy in shape, such as the so-called horned toad. 142 WATER REPTILES OF THE PAST AND PRESENT One or two species only, the Gila monsters/ are reputed to bevenomous. There is but a single species of lizard now living which is inany true sense aquatic in habit, the well-known sea-lizard of theGalapagos Islands, scientifically known as Amblyrhynchus cristatus.It is a large lizard, with a short rounded head, a flat tail, and webbed

Text Appearing After Image: Fig. 66.—Amblyrhynchus cristatus, the Galapagos sea-lizard. (From Brehm) feet. Its specific name is derived from the erect fringed crestalong its back and tail. Its habits are best given in Darwinswords: It is extremely common on all the islands throughout the group, and livesexclusively on the rocky sea-beaches, being never found, at least I never sawone, even ten yards inshore. It is a hideous looking creature, of a dirty blackcolor, stupid and sluggish in its movements. The usual length of a full-grownone is about a yard, but there are some even four feet in length; a large oneweighed twenty pounds. The tails are flattened sideways, and all four feetare partially webbed. They are occasionally seen some hundred yards from the SQUAMATA 143 shore swimming about. When in the water this lizard swims with perfectease and quickness, by a serpentine movement of the body and flattened tail—the legs being motionless and closely collapsed to the sides. A seaman on boardsank one, with a he

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