VARANUS AND CROCODILE'S EGGS 185 



ivas found to have been left undisturbed. Though I have 

 not actually seen Varanus devouring the eggs, there is 

 no doubt of it from the tracks they leave in the sand 

 all round and over the nest, and my friend Dr. Lyndhurst 

 Duke told me that he had actually seen one digging 

 away at a nest. It therefore appears that strict protec- 

 tion oi Varanus against slaughter by natives should be an 

 effectual method of keeping down the numbers of croco- 

 diles. The importance of Varanus as a food supply of 

 Glossina has been alluded to in the chapter on the Tse-tse, 



A fine large lizard of the family Agamidae is known 

 as " E'konkomi " by the natives. It has a brightly 

 coloured male partly sky blue, the female being grey. 

 They particularly frequent open places, but prefer to 

 have a large tree in the neighbourhood, up which they 

 run when alarmed. The E'konkomi seems to feed very 

 largely on ants, judging by the remains found in its 

 excreta, and from the contents of the stomachs examined 

 in several specimens. It has to a marked degree 

 the habit that may be seen in many lizards, alternately 

 raising and lowering the body between thfe fore limbs, as 

 is done by a man lying prone on the ground in a common 

 gymnastic exercise. I could never make out the sig- 

 nificance of this habit, though I think it is developed 

 to a greater degree in the male sex. 



Smaller, more slender lizards (Lacertidae) played on 

 the roof of my tent, and from inside I could wateh their 

 shadows as they scuttled about. It was most amusing 

 to see them playing : one would stealthily creep up 

 behind another and bite his tail, and then there would 

 be a pursuit and a rushing about all over the tent. 



They would dispose themselves for the night some- 

 where among the folds of the tied-back doorv/ay, and 

 on one occasion I was awakened by hearing their well 

 known pattering feet on the roof. Realizing that some- 

 thing must have turned them out from their sleeping 



