LIZARDS. 97 



recommendation of either of the foregoing Australian Varani as household pets would be 

 a matter of supererogation. Large as are the dimensions of these living Monitors, the 

 Australian tertiary deposits have produced conclusive evidence of pre-existing species 

 which very much exceeded them in size. Certain of these, which have been referred 

 to the genera Notiosaurus and Megalania, would appear to have attained to a length 

 of no less than from fourteen to eighteen feet. A relatively small and handsome 

 species of Monitor, technically known as Varanus acanthurus, or the Spiny-tailed 

 Monitor, occurs in tolerable abundance in the north-west district of Western Australia, 

 under conditions corresponding with those which yield the Frilled Lizard, 

 Chlamydosaurus. An example of this Monitor was obtained for the writer at Roebuck 

 Bay, and was also brought to England and presented by him to the Zoological 

 Gardens. As with the species kept in Queensland, it always manifested a hostile 

 attitude, attacking and worrying the Chlamydosauri, with which it was at first 

 associated, and repelling all friendly overtures from its keeper. Its arrival in England 

 and participation in the polite society of an innumerable company of other lizards, 

 does not appear to have exercised any ameliorating influence upon this creature's 

 temper, which is as short and uncertain as when it was first captured, now over 

 twelve months ago. 



A noteworthy feature in the Varani is their possession in a more readily 

 recognisable degree than in any other lizards of that vestigeal structure known as the 

 "pineal eye," a minute functionless median optic organ situated on the top of the 

 head, and intimately connected with the so-called pineal gland. In bygone ages this 

 median eye possibly represented the chief or only optic organ of a doughty race of 

 reptiles to whom the title of the Cyclops would have been both figuratively and 

 literally appropriate. Some admirable dissections of this structure, made by Professor 

 Charles Stewart, F.R.S., may be seen in the Museum of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons. 



One of the rarest and handsomest lizards at the present time on view in the 

 Zoological Society's Menagerie is undoubtedly the Australian type Physignathus Leseuri, 

 known as Leseur's Water Lizard, from New South Wales. This example is over two 

 feet long, with a fine massive head and particularly large intelligent eyes, having 

 their lids delicately ciliated like those of Chlamydosaurus, which, in many respects, 

 allowing for the entire absence of a frill-like membrane, it considerably resembles. As 

 its name implies, its habits are semi-aquatic, and it displays a marked appreciation 

 of the ample water supply provided for it in its allotted cage. Among the more 



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