274 ENCOUNTER WITH A LIZARD. 



for me, and, pointing out the couchant animal, desired 

 him to shoot him in the neck, as I did not wish the head to 

 be injured, which he accordingly did. Entering the jungle, 

 I then closed with the wounded Saurian, and, seizing 

 him by the throat, bore him in triumph to our quarters. 

 Here he soon recovered, and hoping to preserve him 

 alive, to study his habits, I placed him in a Malay wicker 

 hen-coop. As we were sitting, however, at dinner, the 

 black cook, with great alarm depicted in his features, re- 

 ported that "Alligata get out his cage." Seizing the 

 carving knife, I rushed down, and was just in time to cut 

 off his retreat into the adjoining swamp. Turning 

 sharply round, he made a snap at my leg, and received 

 in return a " Rowland for his Oliver," in the shape of 

 an inch or so of cold steel. After wrestling on the 

 ground, and struggling through the deserted fire of our 

 sable cook, I at length secured the runaway, tied him up 

 to a post, and to prevent further mischief, ended his career 

 by dividing the jugular. The length of this Lizard, from 

 actural measurement, was five feet ten inches and a half. 

 These gigantic Lizards (Hydrosanrus giganteu) are 

 rather shy and reserved in their habits, and not very 

 agile in their movements. They affect a swampy habitat, 

 frequenting the low river banks, or the margins of springs, 

 and although I have seen them basking on rocks, or on 

 the dead trunk of some prostrate tree, in the heat of the 

 sun, yet they appear more partial to the damp weeds 

 and undergrowth in the vicinity of water. Many, 

 indeed, are pre-eminently aquatic, as I have noticed in 

 the rivers of Celebes and Mindanao. Their gait has 

 somewhat more of the awkward lateral motion of the 



