78 THE VIVARIUM. 
give severe wounds not only with their teeth and claws, but also 
with their tail. When they have once reached their holes, it is 
no easy matter to withdraw them, for with their great strength 
of claw they are able to cling with much tenacity to the interior of 
their refuge. It is beyond the power of one man, even if he has 
a rope attached to its body, to dislodged a full-grown Monitor 
when he has “‘run to earth.”” Because of a Monitor’s very strong 
claws and its great power of climbing, it is said “that it is 
actually used by house-breakers in India to surmount obstacles ; 
the robber retaining hold of the creature’s tail, while it 
* endeavours to escape it draws him upwards.”’ I dare say that 
some of my readers will think that this is very like the stories of 
Baron Munchausen. 
Monitors lay from twenty to thirty eggs, which they bury in 
the sand. These large Lizards have received the name of 
Monitors because they are supposed to give warning by a loud 
hiss of the approach of the Crocodile. This, however, is only a 
delusion, as they are often found living in the same water with 
the larger Reptiles. The Arabs call this animal Waran; hence 
the generic name of Varanus. A 
The Nile Monitor (Varanus niloticus) is about 6ft. in length, of 
which the tail is onehalf. This animal is semi-aquatic, therefore it 
has a compressed tail, keeled at the top. The feet are not 
webbed, and the toes are unequal in length, the fourth toe being 
the longest and the fifth the shortest. The Nile Monitor is of 
daak green colour, and when young it is prettily spotted with 
yellowish white. It was reverenced by the ancient Kgyptians, 
and is often found engraved upon their ornaments and among 
their hieroglyphics. 
The Ouaran, or Land Monitor (V. griseus), was the ‘‘ Land 
Crocodile” of the ancients. It chiefly differs from the foregoing 
in having a rounded instead of a compressed tail. In this species 
the nostrils are large and placed obliquely near the eyes. There 
is a streak on each side of its head and neck. This animal is by 
no means rare In Egypt and Sinai, and extends to the North 
West of India. : 
The White-throated Monitor (V. albigularis) is another terres- 
trial species, like the above, and is found in South West Africa. 
