70 WU. 0. A. WILSON ON A STNQULAlt LIZARD. 



laide museum, who brought them on his return after aii attempt, 

 ineffectual on account of the drouglit and want of feed for horses, 

 to reach the country of the Diprotodon *. Mr. Waterhouse could 

 not induce the Lizards to eat while in confinement, of which I 

 shall have more to say shortly, and he had to bottle them like all 

 the others. 



My father-in-law, Mr. Stephen King, went to live at Port 

 Augusta as special magistrate in December 1865 t ; and in April 

 1866 (last year) I received from him four of these Molochs alive, 

 first one, and then three together, in a box with some sand. They 

 came by hook post, rather frightening the postman, who declared 

 that " the parcel moved," They all reached me quite uninjured, 

 being defended from the sides of the box and from each other 

 (though they must have had much jolting on the Avay) by the 

 spines with which their bodies are entirely covered, — these sphies 

 yielding a little with the skin on pressure, but not breaking. 

 Hoping I should be able to entice them to eat, though I had heard 

 before that they did not do so, I kept those first received a month, 

 and the rest about three weeks ; but as they took no notice what- 

 ever of any kind of food, and as they appeared at the end of this 

 time to be growing weaker, I put them in methylated spirit, where 

 they died almost immediately. 



Prom my notes I give the following particulars : — The total 

 length of each of the specimens I have had (about nine in number) 

 has been over 5| inches, some having attained 6| inches, and a few 

 a trifle more (the largest is about 7 inches). The tail has never 

 been so blunt iior so rounded as that in Sir G. Grey's figure, but 

 more pointed. The markings as described by him seem similar to 

 those on my specimens, and, as he says, are "very definite, &c., 

 but not easily described." The parts that he speaks of as yellow 

 are in our specimens more of an ochre-colour, and the dark or 

 brown parts are marked with darker streaks of the same coloui*. 

 These differences in size (if so), shape, and colour between west 

 and south specimens may arise from locality, climate, food, &c. 

 Two other little points to noticp in reference to Sir G. Grey's re- 

 marks are that the animal certainly is ferocious in appearance, 



* Some printed remarks upon the remains of this gigantic extinct Marsupial 

 I sent to the Linnean Society about two years ago. 



t Mr. King had been one of the party at the unsuccessful Northern Territory 

 Settlement; and his son, Stephen King, Jun., was also there, and had previouxly 

 crossed the Australian continent under J. M. Stuart. 



