56 



NOTES ON THE CHLAMTDOSAURUS OR FRILLED 

 LIZARD OF QUEENSLAND (Chlamydosaurus Kingii, 

 Gkay), and the DISCOVERY OP A FOSSIL 

 SPECIES ON THE DARLING DOWNS, QUEENS- 

 LAND. 



By GnoBOE Bennett, M.D., F.L.S., Corr. Member of 

 TBE RoTAL Society of Tasmania. 



[Bead IZth July, 1875.] 



This remarkable lizard was first described by Mr. John E. 

 Gray, in 1827, and published in the appendix to the " Narra- 

 tive of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of 

 Australia, by Captain P. P. King, R.N. He considers it 

 closely allied to the Agamse, but differing from them in the 

 peculiar frill that is appended to the neck, and named it 

 Chlamydosaurus Kingii. This interesting lizard was found 

 by Mr. Allan Cunningham, who accompanied Captain King's 

 Expedition as His Majesty's Botanical Collector for Kew 

 Gardens, on the branch of a tree in Careening Bay, at the 

 bottom of Port Nelson. Mr. Cunningham's journal contains 

 the following remarks respecting it, he says : — '* I secured a 

 lizard of extraordinary appearance, which had perched itself 

 upon the stem of a small decayed tree. It had a curious 

 crenated membrane like a ruff or tippet round its neck, 

 covering its shoulders, and when expanded, which it was 

 enabled to do by means of transverse slender cartilages, 

 spreads five inches in the form of an open umbrella. I regret 

 that my eagerness to secure so interesting an animal, did not 

 admit of sufficient time to allow the lizard to show by its 

 alarm or irritability, how far it depended upon, or what us* it 

 made of this extraordinary membrane when its life was 

 threatened. Its head was rather large, and eyes, whilst 

 living, rather prominent, its tongue, although bipfid, was 

 rather short and thick, and appeared to be tubular." The 

 colour of the tongue and inside of the mouth was yellow. 

 The discovery of the fossil species occurred as follows : — 

 In a letter dated Toowoomba, Queensland, July 22nd, 1874, 

 received from my son, Mr. G. F. Bennett, he says: — "I 

 have just returned from a visit to Gowrie Station, on the 

 Darling Downs, and was successful in securing a good speci- 

 men of the jaw of JVbtoAer«f»» Mitchellii, a portion of the jaw 

 of Diportodon, and other specimens, but the most curious of 

 all is a small portion of a jaw with a good many teeth, either 

 of a fish or snake." On receiving this specimen and examin- 

 ing it very carefully under a powerful lens, I considered it 

 was decidedly reptilian. On afterwards showing it to Moni. 



