LIZARDS 77 



likely to follow when all the poison fangs, which number 

 up to fifty, are brought into action. 



The Gila Monster inhabits the dry desert regions, 

 feeding on small mammals and the eggs of birds and 

 other lizards. Specimens kept by the writer were fed on 

 eggs and very finely minced-up meat, the mixture being 

 lapped up, after the manner of a dog. Although usually 

 tame and sluggish, allowing themselves to be handled, if 

 seriously annoyed these lizards become very savage, and 

 raise themselves as high as possible on their hind legs, 

 snapping right and left. One of these lizards at the 

 Zoological Gardens has the peculiar, unlizard-like habit of 

 sleeping on its back, the keepers in consequence having 

 their attention constantly drawn to the fact by visitors, 

 who inform them that the Heloderm is dead ! 



The other species, H. horridum, of Western Mexico, is 

 distinguished by its longer and less swollen tail, and by 

 the tubercles of the back being separated by wider granular 

 interspaces. It differs also in its general colour, being 

 black with yellow spots. 



The Monitors, family Varanid^, containing a single 

 genus, Faranus, made up of about thirty species, are 

 distributed over Africa, Southern Asia, and Australia. 

 The genus includes amongst its members the largest of all 

 lizards, some being said to attain a length of twenty feet. 

 Characteristic of them is their very long tongue — as deeply 

 forked as that of a serpent, and likewise retractile into a 

 basal sheath — and their long neck. The limbs are strongly 

 developed and provided with powerful claws. The body 

 is covered with small tubercles above, with squarish scales, 



