PI.ATVCKHCU.S. 



131 



^. 



14 fdr. 



years for residential purposes, and the consequent clearing of scrub and forest lands, has done 

 much to do away with these pests. While near the coast, however, the predatory lizards referred 

 to are usually of small size ; inland the more common egg-eating species is the Lace Lizard 

 (Winiims I'di'iiii), generally termed "Iguana," is when full grown from seven to eight feet 

 in length, the greater portion consisting of tail, the body of a medium-sized one averaging 

 two feet in length and the tail three feet, but while the former is in comparison very 



broad, the latter is thin and attenuated. When 

 young they are very active, but when full grown 

 are inclined to be extremely fat, lethart;ic and 

 can liardly be shifted with a stick' or stone, 

 especially after a hearty meal. E\ery bushirian 

 knows these reptiles, for the oil extracted trom 

 their bodies when rendered down is supposed to 

 be very efticacious in the cure of rheumatism. 

 They haunt the ground, trees — principally dead 

 ones — and the margins jf swamps and dams, and 

 feast on everything that comes in their way, but 

 principally on small mammals, birds and eggs. 

 They are fairly numerous on Cobborah Station, 

 Cobbora. In that neighbourhood they chiefly 

 frequent dead timber, and feed largely on the eggs 

 of tlie dilferent species of Cockatoos, Lorikeets 

 and 1 'ai lalceets, and \arious Geese and Ducks 

 that breed in hollow limbs of trees, seven eggs 

 of a Maned Goose, ur ■' Wood Duck-," that dis- 

 appeared from a IhjIIuw liiiib of a tree near the 

 homestead during my stay there in (Jctober, 1909, 

 being attributed to the ravages of this species. 

 Two nesting-places of the Kose-hill Parrakeet 

 ( PLitvcifLiis ixiiiiiiis) were also discovered during 

 that month witli the eggs broken and eaten, and 

 a bunch of feathers all that remained of the 

 sitting birds. The accompanying t'lj^ure of one of 

 these Lace Lizards is reproduced from a photo- 

 graph I took on Cobborah Station, on the 19th 

 October, njoy ; the li/ard was a young one about 

 five feet in length, extremely active, and Mr. 

 Austin and I chased it from tree to tree betore it 

 got into a position suitable for photography. 

 Farther west about Gilgandra, Nyngan, Narro- 

 mine, Warren and the Macquarie Marshes these 

 lizards feast chietly on the eg^;s of the Kose-breasted Cockatoo (Cacitiia roiciajpilla), Barnard's 

 Parrakeet (Baiiiai'dins banuirdi), the Red-vented Parrakeet or "Blue-bonnet," (Psephotus 

 lumatoyvlwHs), and various species of water-fowl. I have seen a full set of Black Duck's 

 {A Has supcvciUosa) and a set of Cooi'sf FiiUca anstmlis) eggs that were taken intact from the bodies of 

 these reptiles; in the latter the purplish-black spots and markings had almost entirely disappeared. 

 Young birds are much duller in colour than the adults, the feathers on the crown of the 

 head and nape are dull green, the white cheeks smaller and the scarlet feathers on the chest 

 less in extent, and there is a white spot on the inner webs of the quills forming a bar on the 

 wing. Wing 5'7 inches. 



LACK I,IZ\KIl, A c.liKAl' UKSTROYER OF PXiCS. 



