[Illustration: Fig. 33. Sitana minor. Male, with the gular pouch expanded (from Günther's 'Reptiles of India').]
There are other and much more remarkable differences between the sexes of certain lizards. The male of _Ceratophora aspera_ bears on the extremity of his snout an appendage half as long as the head. It is cylindrical, covered with scales, flexible, and apparently capable of erection: in the female it is quite rudimental. In a second species of the same genus a terminal scale forms a minute horn on the summit of the flexible appendage; and in a third species (_C. Stoddartii_, fig. 34) the whole appendage is converted into a horn, which is usually of a white colour, but assumes a purplish tint when the animal is excited. In the adult male of this latter species the horn is half an inch in length, but is of quite minute size in the female and in the young. These appendages, as Dr. Günther has remarked to me, may be compared with the combs of gallinaceous birds, and apparently serve as ornaments.
[Illustration: Fig. 34. Ceratophora Stoddartii. Upper figure, male; lower figure, female.]
[Illustration: Fig. 35. Chamæleon bifurcus. Upper figure, male; lower figure, female.]
In the genus Chamæleon we come to the climax of difference between the sexes. The upper part of the skull of the male _C. bifurcus_ (fig. 35), an inhabitant of Madagascar, is produced into two great, solid, bony projections, covered with scales like the rest of the head; and of this wonderful modification of structure the female exhibits only a rudiment. Again, in _Chamæleon Owenii_ (fig. 36), from the West Coast of Africa, the male bears on his snout and forehead three curious horns, of which the female has not a trace. These horns consist of an excrescence of bone covered with a smooth sheath, forming part of the general integuments of the body, so that they are identical in structure with those of a bull, goat, or other sheath-horned ruminant. Although the three horns differ so much in appearance from the two great prolongations of the skull in _C. bifurcus_, we can hardly doubt that they serve the same general purpose in the economy of these two animals. The first conjecture which will occur to every one is that they are used by the males for fighting together; but Dr. Günther, to whom I am indebted for the foregoing details, does not believe that such peaceable creatures would ever become pugnacious. Hence we are driven to infer that these almost monstrous deviations of structure serve as masculine ornaments.