The Apaches stand in dire fear of this animal, so that, at least, with their older people no amount of money seems tempting enough to make them go near it, much less to capture one. A former resident of the territories says both Indians and Mexicans believe firmly that if a Gila Monster only breathes in your face it is quite sufficient to cause immediate death. On an old Indian trail, a good days journey west from the present site of Phoenix, can be found, crudely outlined on the face of a rock, the picture of two Helodermas pursuing a man who runs to save his life. Numerous hieroglyphic inscriptions tell probably the story of the event and prove not only the prehistoric origin of this primitive piece of art, but also the erroneous ideas which were prevalent in these remote times, for the reptile never attacks and never pursues. It is safe to say that the animal has been vastly misrepresented at all ages.

Nature has kindly provided the Heloderma with a compensation for its partially undeserved bad reputation in giving it beauty. For whosoever looks upon a fine specimen with unprejudiced eyes cannot fail to admire at least the combination of its colors and especially the odd, capriciously disposed markings; the delicately tinted skin, studded in transverse rows with shiny tubercles, like so many beads on strings.

The illustration to this paper is so excellently made that scarcely any description is necessary as to the animals exterior in color and markings. This Heloderma is a little over nineteen inches in length by ten inches in circumference of the body and five inches at the thickest part of the tail, which makes one-third of the total length of the body. When such a reptile grows to the size of eighteen inches it is called adult. Those growing beyond these figures are unusually large specimens and in very rare instances the species of our illustration reaches the extraordinary length of two feet. An adult Gila Monster weighs about two or three pounds, and in winter less than in summer.

The four short and stubby legs seem quite out of proportion to the massive body, much more so as, the two pairs are widely separated lengthwise of the body. When walking the body is elevated, while in rest it lies flat on the ground. Each foot is provided with five digits armed with curved, white claws.

The skin has generally the appearance as if covered with rows of uniform beads; but, on closer examination, these beads, or more correctly, tubercles, prove to have different shapes and are differently set, according to the part of the body which they cover. On the head from the nose up to between the eyes they are flat, irregularly cut, closely joined and adhere completely to the skull. Those following form polygonal eminences, each one separated from the other by a circle of tiny dermal granulations, while behind the eyes on both sides of the head they are larger, semi-spherical and stand far apart. The throat and the nape of the neck are studded with very closely set small tubercles, increasing in size only above the forelegs, whence they extend in well-defined, transverse rows along the whole tipper side of the body and the tail. The under side of the latter and the abdomen are covered with tessellated scales of a light brown and dull yellow color arranged in another handsome pattern.

A Heloderma's head, with its triangular shape, is very like that of a venomous snake; it gives the animal — especially when it is raised in anger — a truly awe inspiring appearance.

The wide-cleft mouth reaches far behind the eyes. These are very small and, like all lizards, provided with eyelids that close when the animal sleeps. The eye itself has, a dark-brown iris, with the round pupil that indicates, diurnal or at least semi-nocturnal habits. Between the nostrils, well in front of the blunt nose, is a wide space. The nostrils are so far down as to nearly touch the margin of the supra-labial scales. This position denotes terrestrial habits in reptiles rather than an all aquatic life. For to most of them water is indispensable to their welfare. Thus the Gila Monster shows this structure as it likes to bathe in shallow water, often for many hours at a time.