go THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 



In concluding this notice of the Frilled Lizard attention may be directed to 

 the remarkable manner in which this singular species lends itself to certain 

 of the presentments of the mythical dragon depicted by Chinese artists. The 

 photograph from a roughly stuffed skin, reproduced on page 79, will amply 

 suffice to illustrate this very suggestive resemblance. Although the lizard under 

 discussion is entirely unknown in China, it is a well-known fact that from time 

 immemorial the Malay traders have been accustomed to visit the northern coast line 

 of Australia for the prosecution of the B6che-de-Mer or Trepang fisheries, the produce 

 of such fishing going to the Chinese market. It is by no means improbable that 

 through such a source skins of the Frilled Lizard found their way to quarters where 

 they were artistically immortalised in the manner suggested. It is quite within the 

 bounds of possibility, indeed, that a careful investigation into the wealth of con- 

 ventional pictorial art, for which the Chinese are so eminent, would reveal the fact 

 that many of the animals peculiar to the northern districts of Australia were 

 known to them centuries previous to the discovery and opening up of that Island- 

 Continent by Europeans. 



The publication by the writer, in " Nature" and elsewhere, of the data here 

 recorded concerning the bipedal perambulation of Chlamydosaurus has elicited the 

 statement in the "American Naturalist" for July, 1896, that a Mexican lizard, 

 Corythophanes Hernandezii, was described some years since by M. F. Surnichrast as 

 possessing similar locomotive peculiarities. A reference, however, to the original 

 publication quoted, " Note sur les Moeurs de quelques Reptiles du Mexique " : (Archives 

 des Science Physiques, T. XIX, Geneva, 1864), by no means substantiates the 

 correctness of the suggestion made. The passage relating to the locomotion of 

 Corythophanes reads as follows : " Quant il court il releve le haut au corps presque 

 verticalement, tout en fouettant le sol avec sa queue, ce qui lui donne alors une allure 

 fort singuliere." The vertical elevation of the body here described would appear to 

 correspond with the erect locomotive attitude already attested to on page 73 with 

 relation to .certain species of Amphibolurus which is also frequently assumed by 

 Chlamydosaurus when traversing short distances. There is, at any rate, no indication 

 of the animal progressing in an absolutely bipedal fashion, while it is distinctly stated 

 that the lizard continually strikes or flogs the ground with its tail, in place of carrying 

 that appendage raised above it as obtains under corresponding conditions in Chlamy- 

 dosaurus. It is, at the same time, quite possible that Corythophanes raises its fore 

 feet from the groundj when running, and the practical demonstration of this fact in such 



