LIZARDS. 39 



original millinery notion may be as the breath of life. The novelty of the design, and 

 the rare nature of the " trimmings " brought from the earth's uttermost end, may be 

 unhesitatingly guaranteed. And, notwithstanding that grave objections might possibly 

 be raised by paterfamilias or in ecclesiastical quarters concerning the scriptural 

 injunction against "sacrificing our daughters to Moloch," the charms of piquant 

 originality added to those already possessed by the fair wearer will be such as to 

 triumphantly overcome all scruples, and to secure for her the highest mede of envy 

 and admiration. 



Among the lizard pets that proved specially amenable to domestication in the 

 author's hands during his later Western Australian peregrinations, a prominent position 

 must be given to the species photographically represented by two illustrations on the 

 next page. This type, Trachysaurus rugosus, locally known both as the " Stump-tailed " 

 and the " Sleepy " Lizard, is of relatively common occurrence throughout the temperate 

 districts of the Australian Continent, the individual here figured having been obtained 

 from the neighbourhood of Pinjarrah, W.A. The conspicuous features of this lizard 

 are the massiveness of the head, the large size of the scales, the shortness and thickness 

 of the tail, and the diminutive dimensions of the limbs compared with the corpulent 

 body. Its colour varies through innumerable tints of golden, yellow, red or purple 

 browns, relieved on the sides and under surface by marbled patterns in which a creamy 

 or ivory white predominates. From fifteen to eighteen inches represents its normal 

 adult length, the specimen, a comparatively young one, here photographed from life 

 in two characteristic positions, measuring close upon one foot. The photograph 

 forming the lower figure on that page serves particularly well to illustrate the relative 

 small size of the scales on the under surface, the fine reticulated pattern of the 

 surface markings, of his, so to say, delicately embroidered waistcoat, and the grotesquely 

 small, and at the same time uniform, proportions of the four limbs. To successfully 

 obtain this rather peculiar pose the animal was held struggling in the folds of a rough 

 bath towel while the camera was brought to the right focus and the shutter snapped. 

 This article a bath towel it may be mentioned, forms a most admirable background 

 when photographically immortalising animals of this description, and has, as will be 

 easily recognised, been made to do duty on a variety of occasions for the pictorial 

 illustrations of this volume. 



When first captured this individual, in common with other examples of the 

 same species, exhibited a highly pugnacious disposition, hissing vehemently and 



snapping savagely with its widely distending jaws. A bite from this lizard is, as a 

 M 



