572 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



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fhtto by W. Savidt-Kint, F.Z.S. 



A GROUP OF MOUNTAIN-DEVILS OF CENTRAL AUSTRALIA 



The spines of these lizards are so sharp that they "will pierce a tender hand 



the heloderm is the arid, sandy, 

 and stony region on the western 

 side of the Cordillera mountain- 

 range. It is at the same time 

 said to be rarely seen in those 

 parts except during the rainy 

 season, and also to be for the 

 most part nocturnal in its habits. 

 The family group of the 

 MONITORS includes the largest 

 of existing lizards, notably the 

 semi-aquatic form common to 

 North Australia and the Malay 

 Peninsula and adjacent islands, 

 which attains a length of 8 or 

 10 feet, and is not infrequently 

 mistaken, as it rushes, on being 

 disturbed, through the reeds and 

 other rank herbage to the 

 water, for a young crocodile. 



An exceedingly fine and well set-up example of these huge water-monitors, shot by Captain 

 Stanley Flower in the neighbourhood of Singapore, is placed in the Reptile Gallery of the 

 Natural History Museum. 



Another species, indigenous to the Southern Australian States, and having essentially 

 arboreal habits, commonly attains to a length of 5 or 6 feet. The skin of one example of 

 this species, obtained for the writer from the eucalyptus forests in Gippsland, Victoria, measures 

 no less than 7 feet long. With reference to the elegant lace-like pattern of its skin-markings, 

 this species is frequently associated with the suggestive title of the LACE-LIZARD. Among the 

 more illiterate settlers it is generally known as a Gooana, the name being obviously a corruption 

 of Iguana, and being, as a matter of fact, applied promiscuously, and in all cases incorrectly, 

 to a number of the larger Australian lizards. 



All the members of the Monitor Tribe are inveterate egg-eaters. An Egyptian species, the 

 NILE MONITOR, renders service to humanity through the gratification of this propensity in seek- 

 ing out and devouring the eggs of the crocodile. The larger water-monitor of the North Australian 

 and Malay regions has been reported to 

 the writer to be particularly partial to 

 the eggs of the turtle, digging them out 

 of the sand in which the parent deposits 

 them, and destroying them wholesale. The 

 more strictly arboreal Southern Australian 

 species preys to a very large extent on 

 birds' eggs, climbing to the holes in 

 the trunks and branches in which so 

 many Australian birds build their nests, 

 and not infrequently capturing and 

 devouring also the parent birds and 

 young. In the " bush " settlements 

 this monitor is notorious for its depre- 

 dations among the hen-roosts, both eggs 

 and young chickens falling victims to 

 its insatiable appetite. It is conse- HORNED TOAD 



regarded With but Scant favour 4 tpmj lizard, tome-what reumbling the Auxra'ian mountain-dc-vtl 



