2512 SCALED REPTILES 



and is the largest of the genus. In color it is dark brown or blackish above, with 

 yellow rings; the snout being generally lighter, with transverse black bars, and a 

 dark band, bordered by a yellow one, running backward from the eye, the under 

 surface being uniformly yellow. The water monitor frequents marshy localities, 

 being often found on trees overhanging rivers, and taking readily to the water, 

 either fresh or salt. The last species that we notice is the well-known Nile 

 monitor ( V. niloticus), whose range extends all over Africa except a portion of the 

 northwestern regions. Belonging to the same great group as the last, it represents 

 a second subgroup distinguished by the equality in the size of the scales above the 

 eyes; while it is distinguished from its allies by the nostrils being rather nearer the 

 tip of the eye than the snout. In size it is somewhat larger than the desert monitor. 

 The color of the adult is brownish or greenish gray, with darker reticulate mark- 

 ings, and more or less distinct yellowish eye-like spots on the back and limbs; 

 while beneath it is yellowish, crossed by some dark bands. This species is likewise 

 found in the neighborhood of water, generally building itself a nest among the 

 bushes on the banks, especialty of those streams that dry up in the hot season. 

 The Papuan monitor ( V. prasinus) of New Guinea and the islands of Torres 

 Straits may be cited as an example of the fourth group of the genus, in which, 

 while the nostrils are round, the tail is nearly or quite cylindrical. 



As will be gathered from the foregoing, the monitors present con- 

 siderable diversity of habitat, although the majority prefer the 

 neighborhood of water. The Papuan species is, however, believed to be arboreal. 

 All are carnivorous in their diet, feeding on frogs, snakes, the smaller mammals 

 and birds, as well as the eggs of both birds and reptiles, especially crocodiles. 

 Their movements are extremely rapid, both on land and in water; and many a 

 sportsman in his first day's snipe shooting in the rice fields around Calcutta has 

 been startled by the sudden rush of the common Indian species ( V. bengalensis} as 

 it darts among the herbage close to his feet. Those species in which the tail is the 

 most compressed are the best swimmers; this appendage serving as a powerful pro- 

 peller in the water, and being also used as a weapon of offense on land. In order 

 to enable them to remain under water for some time, the nostrils are expanded into 

 large cavities within the snout; and when the apertures are closed these pouches 

 serve as reservoirs of air. Writing of the great water monitor, Cantor says that 

 it is " very numerous in hilly and marshy localities of the Malayan Peninsula. It 

 is commonly during the day observed in the branches of trees overhanging rivers, 

 preying upon birds and their eggs and smaller lizards, and when disturbed it throws 

 itself from a considerable height into the water. It will courageously defend itself 

 with teeth and claws and by strokes of the tail. The lowest castes of Hindus 

 capture these lizards commonly by digging them out of their burrows on the banks 

 of rivers for the sake of their flesh." Professor V. Ball gives the following 

 account of a meeting with a lizard of the same species in the Nicobars: " As I did 

 not care to shoot him, though I wanted to capture him, I threw stones at him, 

 whereupon he hissed and lashed his tail in a manner that might prove alarming 

 to anyone not knowing the harmless nature of the beast. As I was pressing him 

 into a corner, he made a rush into the waves, but returned, apparently not liking 



