Lizard
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Lizard. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a scaly, four-legged reptile without a shell. Leave out the snake and turtle, any other reptile may be called a lizard. The largest lizard known is the crocodile, twenty feet long; the smallest may be held by the dozen in the palm of the hand. Ordinary lizards have two pairs of legs and a long, slender, tapering tail. The middle of each vertebra of the tail has a layer of cartilage that renders the tail liable to snap in two readily without apparent injury to the owner. A new tail grows quickly but it lacks vertebrae. It is merely a gristly tube. The eyes are provided with movable eyelids. The young are hatched from eggs, but do not undergo changes like those of the frog. Lizards live usually on insects, worms, and similar food. The common lizard or swift is described by Jordan as "greenish, bluish, or bronzed, with black, wavy cross-bands above, throat and sides of belly with brilliant blue and black; scales of back rather large, strongly keeled, pointed, similar to lateral scales; body depressed; tail slender. Length, seven inches. United States , in forests and along fences, north to Michigan; abundant south; varies greatly in color." There are, counting allied forms, 1,600 kinds of lizards. The deserts of southeastern Asia, the Sahara region, and the coasts of the Mediterranean are noted for lizards. Some of the large lizards of Central and South America are valued for food. The glass snake is a lizard without legs. The gecko of Italy and Jamaica has two toes flattened into sucker-like disks that enable it to run about over stone walls and trees. A brilliantly colored tree lizard, native to the East Indies and Ceylon, is called the flying dragon. It is noted for a fold of skin running along the sides of the ribs. By extending this-fold, parachute fashion, the animal is able to swoop like a flying squirrel from branch to branch. It is obliged to run up the trunk, of course, so as to fly always to a lower level. The lizard is to be distinguished from the salamander. See Chameleon ; Iguana ; Dragon ; Basilisk ; Slowworm; Salamander ; Crocodile Lizards. Virginian glass snake. Monitor-lizard of the Nile. Blindworm Lizards. Iguana. Basilisk. Flying Lizard. Horned toad. Gecko. Marine lizard
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the popular English name of numerous reptiles forming the order Lacertilia or Sauria, and having usually two pairs of limbs and an elongated body terminating in a tail. The lizards number more than a thousand species, accommodating themselves to all conditions except cold, and increasing in size and number in tropical regions. In some the tongue is thick and fleshy and in others it is divided, while in most cases it is protrusible. Some lizards are vegetable feeders, but for the most part they are carnivorous and live upon small birds, insects, etc. The eggs are de posited and left to be hatched without FRILLED LIZARD care from the parents. Of the three species found in Great Britain the common lizard (Lacerta vivipara) is the A B LIZARDS A. Draco volans (Malayan) B. Lacerta Viridis (European) most widely distributed; the sand lizard (Lacerta agilis) is confined to portions of England, and the green lizard (Lacer- (La ta viridis) is found on the island of Guernsey. The chief families of lizards are the Scincidæ, or skinks; the Geckotidæ, or geckos; the Iguanidæ, or iguanas; and the Chamæleonidæ, or chameleons. Poison glands are wanting in the lizards; the only exception being the Heloderma of Arizona and Mexico, which is capable of inflicting a poisonous bite hate by means of poison glands connected with grooved teeth. even-toed