166 REPTILES OF THE WORLD 



food supply is apt to be the rule. It is the writer's 

 belief that the Gila Monster feeds principally upon the 

 eggs of the desert snakes and lizards, cunningly digging 

 these from the sand where they are placed by the mother 

 to await incubation by the sun's heat. 



The Monitors; family Varanidce: A single genus 

 made up of twenty-seven species composes this, an iso- 

 lated family. The distribution covers Africa, India, 

 Malaysia and Australia. Among the members are the 

 largest and heaviest known lizards, some of them reach- 

 ing a length of eight feet and a weight of sixty pounds. 

 They are fleet and powerful of limb, flesh-eating and 

 voracious. Most characteristic about them is the ex- 

 tremely long tongue, as deeply forked as that of a 

 serpent ; in proportion to the size of the head the tongue 

 is much longer than among snakes. As a Monitor is 

 progressing, the tongue is kept constantly darting in an 

 evident investigation of nearby objects. Another strik- 

 ing peculiarity of the structure is the very long neck. 

 On this the head may be drawn back to a considerable 

 extent, enabling the reptile to make a quick dart forward 

 in catching the prey. 



Monitors are covered with a fine, almost granular 

 scalation, the scales being rounded and protruding in 

 small, beady points. The abdomen is covered with 

 smooth, square shields. The tail is usually very long; 

 among the desert species it is round ; others have a much 

 compressed tail and are excellent swimmers. 



The Desert Monitor or Yellow Monitor, Varanus 

 griseus, occurs in the arid portions of northern Africa, 

 southwestern Asia and Arabia. In keeping with the 

 sandy soil on which it lives, the colors are pale-grayish 

 yellow, with obscure, darker transverse bands; even the 

 long forked tongue is a pale flesh color. This is one of 



