Nebraska advertiser., 1881-08-11
A SagaciOus Lizard.

"This is the third one that has been
found in the Park this spring. said Il
man at the Arsenal, holding out n curl
ous, spny-loOking object for Il reporter
60 look at "NO, it's not toad; though
they call them horned toads. It's u
lizard, and the people in the museum
call it the phrynosma.
The animal was about four inches
long and unpleasant to look At Its
body was fiat, the upper surface GOV.
cred with short dark spines and the
under surface with small plates. The
back of the head was armed with scv-
eral rccurving short spinos, with short
or spincs here and there.
"You wouldn' think such creature
would know anything continued the
owner of the lizard, "but "A snake has
90 wake up early in the season to get
the best of it. | call him Samson, be-
cause the first day had him he pushed
under the leg of heavy chair that
was tipped against the wall and fairly
knocked it over. II man were rs
strong in proportion TO his size he
could lift the obeisk. No, that didn'
show any cunning, but I'll show you
where the cunning came in. | caught
big striped snake about two weeks
ago. | was standing in my yard when
along came big toad putting in its
best hops, and right behind it the
snake, so intent on the chase that il
came right up to me. | caught it and
kept it for some time in box with u
glass top, and one day it struck me
that the spines on the lizard must have
been intended as preventive against
snakes.
al thought | would test it, and | put
Samson into the box. Then | disCov-
cred that he was as wise as Solomon.
The snake evidently had not tasted
foou since last summer-yOu know they
sleep all winter and, quick us flash,
he dartcd at the lizard, but, rs the boys
say, he got left. The little fellow was
around the box like II shot, but finally
the snake cornered him and caught him
by the hind claw. Now, toad or frog
will squirm around and face a snake
and get demoralized generally, and
give it chance to catch hold Of its
head, but my lizard knew n game worth
two of that. When the snake touched
him he turned his head directly away.
The snake tried every way he could to
edge up and get the little fellow by the
head, so he went to work TO swallow
his tail first. He stretched out his jaw
and planted his long teeth into the legs
and gradually worked the body into his
mouth with the smaller teeth.
"When he had taken in as much as
he could in this way, the long fangs
were loosened and thrown ahead and
fresh hold taken, each side of the mouth
edgiHg ahead in turn. Nothing could
stand this pressure long, and in ten
minutes half of the patient lizard was
out of sight. He was only waiting for
his turn, and it soon came; the snakes
lips had reached his neck, when opera
tiOnS ceased There were four or five
spines as sharpas needles, pointing out
every which way, that put an end to the
swallowing business. | didn't see the
lizard laugh; he must have felt like it,
for he wasn't hurt in the least. 1t took
the snake half an hour to get rid of him,
but it tried two or three tunes to swal-
low him. At every jump the lizard
turned his back so that the spines faced
the snake, and Mt last separated them.
Yes, it was rather cruel, but | looked
ut it as Il scientific investigation. ~
Y Mail