1901.] ON THE LIZAEDS OF THE " SKEAT EXPEDITIOJT." 301 



2. On a Collection of Lizards from the Malay Peninsula, 

 made by Members of the '' Skeat Expedition/' 1899- 

 1900. By F. F. Laidlaw, B.A., Assistant Lecturer 

 and Demonstrator at Owens College. 



[Eereivecl March 14, 1901.] 



(Text-figure 76.) 



I. Native names of the Lizards. 



The small House-Geekos are known to the Malays as "chi-ehak " 

 (" chee-chak'"). Geclco vertioillatus is called " tokay." The different 

 members of the genus Varanus are called "biawak" or " bewak " 

 (biawah "). Liolepis hellii is the " be^vak pasir" (sand-lizard); 

 Gecko stentor the owl lizard, " bewak pongo." Draco is often 

 spoken of as " chichak terbang " or flying lizard, sometimes 

 " bidadari " (fairy or celestial spirit), occasionally by way of a joke 

 " bidandari " (bidan = midwife). The species of Galotes and Oono- 

 dactylus oxe called " sumpah-sumpah " in the south, farther north 

 "p5kah." The Skinks are called" ben gkarong" (or "mengkai'ong"), 

 except Lygosoraa chalcides, which is regarded as a snake and 

 called " ular berkaki," the snake with feet, or " ular bengkarong," 

 lizard-like snake. Tachydromus sexlineatus, on the other hand, is 

 " bengkarong ular," the snake-like lizard. 



II. Distribution of the Lizards^. 



The distribution of Lizards throughout the Peninsula is of 

 course modified by the physical characters of the country. Thus 

 along the east coast, where there are large tracts of barren sandy 

 countiy, Liolepis hellii is exceedingly abundant and in such 

 localities is the only reptile to be seen. This lizard is the only 

 example from the Peninsula of the terrestrial group of Agamoids, 

 so numerous in Australia and Africa, and it is interesting to find 

 that it keeps to the driest and most exposed places to be found. 



A number of species are only to be found in the cultivated 

 lands lying alongside the rivers and spreading out over the plains. 

 Calotes cristatellus is certain to be met with wherever there are 

 groves of cocoanut, palms, or banana plants. The common species 

 of Varanus too are abundant, sometimes they are to be seen right 

 in the towns. I shot a specimen of V. salvator well over 5 feet in 

 length at the back of our house in Tringganu, where it was feeding 

 on a dead pig. 



Draco volans is also found in cultivated lands ; in the north 

 Gecko verticillatus, which does not live in houses in the Peninsula, 

 is sometimes to be met with under the bark of trees along with 

 Hemidactylus frenatus. The most widely spread of all is perhaps 

 Mabuia multifasciata, equally at home in the thickest forests and 

 in towns within a few feet of high-water mark. The small house- 

 haunting Geckos complete the Lizard-fauna of the cultivated 



^ The position of the localities in which specimens were collected is shown in 

 the sketch-map, text-fig. 76, p. 302. 



