8o REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS 



the Lace Monitor, keeping on the ground when alarmed, 

 and taking refuge in holes in the earth, never endeavour- 

 ing to climb up a tree. 



Until quite recently V . salvator and V . giganteus of 

 Australia, which both attain a length of nine feet, were 

 considered to be the largest living lizards. A monitor 

 recently described from Comodo, a small island between 

 Flores and Sumbawa in the Malay Archipelago, however, 

 appears to be of exceptional dimensions, greatly exceeding 

 in size any previously recorded species. Mr. Van Steyn, 

 when Civil Administrator of the island of Flores, being 

 informed of the existence of a monitor of exceptional size, 

 said to attain twenty-three feet in length, in the island of 

 Comodo, resolved to obtain further particulars of this 

 animal, and proceeded to the island to, if possible, obtain 

 a specimen. He was only able to secure one seven feet 

 long, but at a later date another thirteen feet long was 

 shot, and has been described under the name of V aranus 

 komodensis. It is said to live exclusively on land, making 

 great holes under the stones, under which it always remains 

 at night. 



A fossil monitor, V. priscus, attained a size at least as 

 large as the reported gigantic specimen of this newly 

 discovered reptile, and, in fact, it is not altogether im- 

 possible that the two may be closely related, if not identical. 



Most Monitors become very tame in captivity, taking 

 the eggs, to which they are very partial, from the hand ; 

 an individual living some years ago in our gardens would 

 eat as many as eight hen's eggs in succession, swallowing 

 them entire, the shell being crushed by the contraction 

 of the muscles of the neck. 



