86 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 



mental reckoning elicited the fact that no less than from one thousand to fifteen 

 hundred ants were taken in successive order at a single meal, each ant being separately 

 picked up by a flash-like protrusion of the slender adhesive tongue. An approximate 

 idea of the aspect presented by this little family party when enjoying a mid-day repast 

 may be gained by a reference to the instantaneous photographs taken by the author 

 reproduced on page 85. In the first of these illustrations all the specimens portrayed 

 are crouched closely to the ground and absorbed in the delights of gastronomy. The 

 second photograph serves to illustrate another interesting detail in the life habits of 

 this lizard. Having satisfied their healthy appetites, two of the examples in this 

 picture are indulging in a post prandial promenade, and it may be observed that 

 they walk erect with their tails high in the air, much after the fashion assumed 

 by contented kittens. This bizarre comportment of the caudal appendage is almost 

 invariably exhibited when the little animals are in full marching order. Another 

 conspicuous feature in the ambulatory gait of Moloch horridus is the peculiarly 

 uncertain, vacillatory movements they often manifest at the commencement of their 

 course, balancing themselves to and fro with one foot elevated before starting, as 

 though they could not quite make up their minds to risk the premier pas, and not 

 unfrequently repeating the action after making a short advance. This desultory mode 

 of progress communicates to these lizards a very grotesque appearance, suggesting 

 to the observer the idea of a mechanically wound-up toy. A somewhat similar 

 vacillating method of perambulation is exhibited, it may be observed, by the common 

 Chameleon. 



The defensive capacities of Moloch are of an essentially low order, being 

 limited chiefly to the passive resistance offered by the projecting spines. These 

 thickly distributed thorn-like defensive weapons are not unfrequently of such needle- 

 like acuteness as to readily pierce and draw blood from the hand that grasps the 

 animal incautiously. When so handled, Moloch will also occasionally open its mouth 

 and emit a slight hissing noise, and at the same time a blast of very offensive breath, 

 due probably to the unsavoury odour of the ants it feeds upon. On one or two 

 occasions the author observed these lizards comport themselves in a distinctly hostile 

 manner. In these instances, the aggressor has rushed at and vigorously pushed and 

 butted a comrade with its horns with a dash that would do credit to the reputation 

 of a Liliputian buffalo. Two examples will also occasionally mutually disagree and 

 butt at each other with much outward display of mortal enmity, but with little or 

 no resulting damage to either combatant. As a general rule, the number of individuals 



