Lizards. 



575 





Photo ly W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.j 



BANDED IGUANAS. 



[Mi 



A rare species from the Fiji Islands, Male to the right ; female without bands to the 

 left. The example crouching between them is a bearded lizard. 



and cannot be safely kept in company with other less 



powerful species. 



The attribute of bipedal locomotion is possessed by the 



teguexin. That this singular method of progression was an 



accomplishment possessed by one of the larger tropical 



American lizards was first reported to the writer from 



Trinidad. Some species of iguana was, in the first instance, 



anticipated to be the acrobatic performer. Several ex- 

 amples of this family group were accordingly put' through 



their paces at the Zoo, to ascertain if they could lay claim 



to the distinction. None of the iguanas available, however, 



rose (on their hind legs) to the occasion, and it was only 



on experimenting, as a derniere ressource, with the teguexin 



that a successful demonstration was accomplished. This 



lizard was found, in fact, to run bipedally more freely and persistently, when sufficient space 



was allotted it, than the Agamas. It seems singular that this bipedal power of locomotion 



should have so long remained undiscovered, and yet is possessed by lizards which have for a 



number of years been the denizens of many 

 zoological gardens and other menageries. 

 The fact that a comparatively large level area 

 is a sine qua non for the exhibition of this 

 phenomenon affords no doubt the explanation 

 of this anomaly ; but the anomaly itself at the 

 same time serves to accentuate the desirability, 

 in the interests of both science and the animals' 

 comfort, that exists for providing them in cap- 

 tivity with a more liberal and reasonably sufficient 

 space for their indulgence in those methods of 

 i locomotion that are natural to them in their 



native land. 



Photo i, y w.saviiie-Kent, F .z.x.} \uuford-on. &a. The Greaved Lizard Family includes some- 



SOUTH AFRICAN GIRDLED LIZARD. what over one hundred species. While the 



Remarkable for the spiny armature, which is arranged in concentric majority agree with the teguexin in the pOS- 



eirdles - session of well-developed limbs, there are a few 



