BY K. H. BENNETT, ESQ. 215 



the trunk of the tree, quickly removes the superincumbent soil 

 with his wooden shovel for twenty or thirty feet, and cutting the 

 root off at each end lifts it out of the trench and cuts it up into 

 lengths of about eighteen inches or two feet, knocks off the bark 

 and stands the severed portions on end in some receptacle to 

 contain the water, (in former times a water-bag made of the 

 entire skin of a male wallaby.) As soon as these pieces are 

 placed on end the water commences to drip, and, when the whole 

 of the root or roots are cut up and placed on end, the native 

 beginning at the first placed, puts the end in his mouth and by a 

 vigorous puff expels the remaining water. The roots chosen are — 

 with the bark on — about the size of a man's wrist, the larger ones 

 being more woody and less porous contain little or no water. The 

 water is beautifully clear, cool, and free from any unpleasant taste 

 or smell. 



Note on a Viviparous Lizard (Hinulia elegans.) 

 By J. J. Fletcher, M.A., B.Sc. 



In vol. ii., p. 167, of the late lamented Prof. Balfour's 

 Comparative Embryology, it is said that " a few forms (of Reptilia) 

 are viviparous, viz., some of the blind-worms amongst lizards 

 (Anguis, Seps), and some of the Viperidse and Hydrophidse amongst 

 the serpents. In the majority of cases, however, the eggs are laid 

 in moist earth, sand, &c." 



[n Prof. Owen's Anatomy of Verteb., vol. i., p 616, it is stated 

 that " the common ringed snake excludes the eggs, sixteen to 

 twenty in number, connected together with a glutinous coating, 

 usually in some fermenting mass of decaying organic matter, 

 whereby they are often transported and spread abroad in the 

 manuring of fields and gardens. The viper is not subject to this 

 ovipositing cause of dispersion, and the confinement to a limited 

 locality would seem to be the condition of the viviparity of most or 

 all poisonous snakes It affects however, the harmless slow-worm 

 (Anguis fragilis), and nimble lizard (Zootoca vivipara), both of 

 which usually produce their young alive." 



