GECKOS, LIZARDS, AND CHAMELEONS. 85 



Southern Asia, and Australia, and although they 

 vary greatly both in size and habitat, some being 

 semi-aquatic, they have yet, as we have just 

 remarked, escaped conspicuous modification of 

 form. As with the English species, there is 

 nothing remarkable about the shape or covering of 

 the body, the limbs are well developed, and bear 

 the normal number of digits, five on each foot. 



The life history of the largest of these crea- 

 tures, Faranus salvator, which attains a length of 

 seven feet, is extremely interesting viewed in 

 this light. Its range is considerable, extending 

 from Nepal to Ceylon, Cape York, and Southern 

 China, including the Malay Islands and Philip- 

 pines. Mr Annandale, who studied this species 

 in Lower Siam, describes it as equally at home on 

 land, in the water, or among the branches of 

 trees. In the water it swims beneath the surface 

 folding the legs close to the body, and using the 

 tail both as oar and rudder. 



Among the branches of the trees these great 

 lizards find an abundance of food. In the states 

 where the Siamese practise tree-burial, these 

 monitors are said to eat the flesh of the corpses. 

 Another which he met with had seized a flying 

 squirrel. Specimens which he captured on the 

 ground proved when dissected to have been 

 feeding on tortoises, others on dung beetles. Eggs 

 appear to be a delicacy much appreciated by the 

 monitors. These are taken up with great care, 

 and passed unbroken into the gullet lest their 

 contents should escape. Here they are said to 

 be crushed by the contractions of the muscles of 

 the gullet. 



