MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 817 



height of about 3 feet from the ground, and is composed of bright green moss 

 with a little white vegetable down woven in, and is lined with the latter 

 material. 



The aperture, which is 1 inch in diameter, is near the top. There is no 

 "projecting roof" over the entrance. 



The eggs, three in number, are white, sparingly spotted and mottled with 

 very dark brown. 



The average of the 3 eggs gives the following measurements : — 



Length 0'58" 



Breadth 0*41" 



B. B. OSMASTON.I. F, S. 



Dakjeeling, October, 1902. 



No. VI.— BIPEDAL LOCOMOTION OF A CEYLONESE LIZARD. 



I have frequently observed with interest the erect attitude assumed by the 

 small Agamid lizard (Otocryptis bivittata, Wiegm.) when running rapidly, and 

 have long suspected that the short front legs were not used at such times. 

 But the rapidity with which the animal runs, and the nature of the ground 

 which it usually frequents, have prevented very close observation. I have, 

 however, recently fully satisfied myself that its action is truly bipedal. The 

 lizard happens to be common in the Botanic Gardens here, and on several 

 occasions one of them has crossed a smooth sanded road immediately in 

 front of me. I have thus been able to see clearly thnit the anterior limbs are 

 carried quite free from the ground, progress being effected solely by the 

 long hind limos. 



It seems possible that the closely allied and similarly built lizard Sitana 

 ponticerina, Cuv., may have the same habit. Does the Indian species of 

 Otocryptis (0. becklomii) progress in the same fashion ? 



At present the habit has been recorded only of one or more Australian 

 lizards, notably the" frilled lizard" {Chlamydosaurus h'mgt), which has been 

 very cleverly photographed in the erect attitude by Mr. Saville Kent. 



E. ERNEST GREEN. 

 Peradeniya, Ceylon, August, 1902. 



( Published in " Nature, " Vol. 6«, No. 17-16, Sept. ISth, 1902.) 



No. VII.-THE NIDIFICATION OF THE BRONZE- WINGED JACANA 

 {METOPIDIVS INDWUS). 

 Nowhere do I find it recorded that this Jacana has two broods a year, 

 yet I have seen a pair sucessf ully raise two families, between the months 

 of February and July. As they were the only pair of birds upon a jheel 

 which surrounded the house I lived in, in Dum-Dum, there can be no 

 mistake. When I first saw them in February there were three birds, either 



