Billy Davey, age 9, of Garden Grove, California, for his question:

Are there really lizards that can fly?

The dragon of old was a spooky monster    or so they say. The bad tempered character flew through the air on great wings, lashing his scaly tail and maybe puffing flaming fumes from his fiery nose. Story books say that he was a sort of fantastic flying lizard. But our up to date experts say that this dreadful dragon was an impossible fellow who never existed. To make up for this loss they introduced us to an honest to goodness lizard who really has wings. And this harmless little fellow really zooms through the air.

Oh yes, indeed, there are flying lizards in this wonderful world    lots of them. True, they do not flap their wings like the flying birds. But, nevertheless, they swerve and sail and swoop through the air. They know just where they are going and they do not fly like birds. After all, we say that a plane flies and it does not flap its wings either. Some people call them flying dragons. But these harmless little lizards are not a bit like the fierce, fantastic dragons that people dreamed up ages ago.

There are about 40 different flying lizards in the world. But, sad to say, none of them make their homes in the Americas. They enjoy life in the warm forests of Europe and Africa and Australia and some of them live on pleasant islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. All of them are slim, pretty little creatures with long scaly tails. The place to look for them is up in the trees. It may be hard to spot one because his scaly colors blend with the scenery. Also, you must stay very quiet.

Chances are, you will spot the shy little lizard on coconut palm trees. He is clinging tightly with his ten little fingers and ten little toes and his body is pressed flat against the trunk. There is no sign of his famous wings because they are folded close to his sides. Right now he is enjoying the sunshine and hunting for bugs and butterflies to eat. Soon he eats up all the food on his tree. Then it is time to move. He climbs as high as he can get to make his aerial trip to the next bug filled tree.

The flying lizard begins his flight with his wings still folded. He plunges recklessly into the air    then his round, flat wings open up and spread out from his sides. He looks a bit like a flying pancake with four tiny, wide spread legs, a head and a long skinny tail The undersides of his wings are brightly colored.

Suddenly that hard to see fellow on the tree trunk looks somewhat like a gaudy butterfly    a flying jewel of blue or spotted orange or some other eye catching color scheme. The pretty little acrobat may zoom 20, 40 or even 60 feet through the air. In a moment he lands neatly on the trunk of the next tree. The air may flutter the edges of his papery wings. But they do not flap. He uses them like a glider's wings to float through the air.

Birds have wings instead of arms or front legs. The flying lizard did not have to trade his arms for a pair of wings. He has both. The frames for his amazing wings are five or six pairs of false ribs. The papery covering is thin lizard skin. Both the ribs and the skin are fixed to his back and sides and they reach from his arm joints to his leg joints. The frisky fellow spends almost all his life bug¬ hunting high in the trees.