282 BROWN LIZARD. 



The large Brown Lizard is common in Hong- Kong, 

 Korea, and in Borneo. When caught, it bites severely. 

 It is a ground Lizard, and is very active, preying on 

 insects of various kinds. The Malays call it " Bingka- 

 rong." I have seen, while lazily reclining under the 

 cool shade of the trees on the small Island of Burong, 

 this large brown Lizard very attentively watching by the 

 side of a populous Ant-hill, and, as the unsuspecting in- 

 habitants came forth, in regular columns, as is their wont, 

 he would lick them up, with a complacent shake of the 

 head ; looking about him, at the same time, in a knowing 

 manner, with the fore part of the body raised high upon 

 the legs, and his long tail undulating gently from side to 

 side. Many thousands of the population of their city 

 were, doubtless, consumed, in the course of an hour, by 

 this fearful dragon without their walls. 



I have observed the Fringed Tree- Gecko (Ptychozoon 

 homalocephala) ascend the stems of trees with considerable 

 agility, feeding greedily on the Termites that march in 

 swarms up and down the trunks, but I fancy the obser- 

 vation of Boie, that " they use the expansions on their 

 sides as a parachute," to be incorrect. I have seen them 

 cling to the smooth stem of a Palm, and remain for a 

 long time perfectly motionless. They appear to court the 

 shade, and owing to their assimilating in colour to the 

 bark, they are not easily to be perceived, even by the eye 

 of the naturalist. They are certainly not aquatic, as 

 M. Cuvier once imagined. In the young animal, the 

 membrane is corrugated, and as if shrivelled up, although 

 it is not rudimental, and, in some specimens, the free 

 margin of the mouth is entire, while in others, it is scal- 

 loped, and irregular. 



