LIZARDS. 95 



escape from the extemporised cage provided in the garden for his occupation. One 

 night his efforts proved successful, and after vain though patient searchings he was 

 reluctantly given up for lost. The astonishment that was experienced ten days later 

 may be better imagined than described, when the returned prodigal was seen in a very 

 emaciated and dilapidated condition, struggling vehemently to regain access to his 

 former prison-house. During his voluntary absence he had evidently fallen upon evil 

 times, possibly been surprised, after the manner of his tribe, in robbing a henroost 

 and so narrowly escaped the wrath of an avenging Nemesis as to receive on his hinder 

 quarters a blow that was doubtless intended for his head, and which, had it attained 

 its mark, would have brought its career to a speedy and ignominious termination. 

 The fact that he returned minus his long, handsome tail, which had apparently been 

 chopped off at the very stump, lends substantial support to the foregoing tentative 

 interpretation. The most interesting point in the episode is the circumstance of the 

 creature's voluntary return to captivity, associated with which he probably carried 

 in his brain the reminiscence of a more liberal dietary than fell to his lot in the 

 outer world. 



On relating this anecdote of the truant Varanus recently to Dr. G. D. Haviland, 

 that naturalist informed the writer that he had had a very similar experience with a 

 member of the same genus in North Borneo. A captive specimen in his possession 

 similarly made good its escape, and after an absence of four or five. days returned to 

 the scene of its internment, having evidently a preference for the " flesh-pots of Egypt," 

 albeit accompanied by durance vile, to freedom and a precarious commissariat in his 

 native jungle. 



Certain of the Australian Monitors attain to very considerable dimensions, and 

 are by no means desirable subjects to encounter at close quarters with unprotected 

 hands. The writer possesses a skin of Varanus varius, previously referred to, from 

 the Eucalyptus forests of Gippsland, Victoria, which measures over seven feet in its 

 total length, and has claws attached that are as formidable as those of a large 

 tiger cat. Even smaller examples, such as the one signalized in the foregoing 

 anecdote, which, previous to curtailment, measured a little over three feet, could use 

 its hind talons to such effect that an incautious attempt to pick it up on the occasion 

 of the " prodigal's return," resulted in the most gruesome scarifying of the hands of 

 the experimenter. The species of Varanus here referred to is an essentially arboreal 

 type, preying to a large extent, in its adult state, on the opossums and their young, 

 to whose holes, high up in the hollow gum-trees, they will lay patient siege until 



