1901.] LIZABDS or THE " SKEAT EXPEDITIOK." 309 



the female, is roughly handled, and is prevented from lasing its 

 powerful jaws, it flattens its body in such a way that the stripes 

 of colour on the sides become most conspicuous. The female is 

 unable to do this with such effect, as her ribs seem to be less 

 mobile. Liolepis lives in holes in the ground, which often go down 

 vertically for two feet before there is a bend in their course. The 

 Malays say that the holes are dug by the lizard with the aid of 

 claws and snout, but Liolepis is so timid that I have never been 

 able to watch one digging. A male and female were generally 

 captured in each burrow, and the natives assured me that the 

 lizard is strictly monogamous." A female I opened contained 

 eight large eggs with leathery shells. In the stomach of another 

 specimen I found remains of a large spider, several grasshoppers, 

 and a quantity of vegetable food. 



Malay name, " Bewak pasir " (sand-lizard). 



Eam. V A K A N I D iE. 



Two large species belonging to this family are common in 

 suitable localities all over the Peninsula. These are Varanus 

 salvator and V. nebulosus. Mr. Annandale has given me the fol- 

 lowing note concerning these species : — " V, salvator is perhaps 

 more aquatic than V. nebulosus, otherwise their habits appear to be 

 identical and they are equally at home in water, on land, or amongst 

 the branches of trees. They lay their eggs in hollow tree-trunks* 

 When in the water they swim beneath the surface, their legs 

 closely applied to their sides ; the powerful tail functions both as 

 a propeller and as a rudder. Their food is very varied. In the 

 States of Patalung and Singgora, in which the Siamese practise a 

 form of tree-burial, these great lizards are accused, and probably 

 with justice, of devoui-ing the corpses. I have disturbed a large 

 monitor eating the body of one of its own kind which had evidently 

 been dead for some days ; another when chased dropped from its 

 mouth a small flying-squirrel [Sciuropterus) ; a third, which I 

 dissected, had swallowed a small tortoise the carapace of which had 

 been broken into innumerable little fragments ; the stomachs of 

 several others contained nothing but dung-beetles, for which 

 Varani may often be seen hunting, turning over the dung of 

 elephants or buffaloes with its fore feet." 



I have watched a small F. salvator eating a rat in the Botanical 

 Gardens at Singapore. It shook the rat very violently, banging 

 it against the walls of its cage and on the ground, then bit it all 

 over, until presumably all the rat's bones were broken, then bolted 

 it head first. They may sometimes lay their eggs in burrows. A 

 specimen at Kuala Aring lived in a very long and deep burrow, 

 so deep that we could not dig it out. In and near Tringganu they 

 are especially plentiful near the burial grounds. 



Vaeanus salvatok Laur. 



Varanus salvator, Boulenger, Cat. Liz. ii. p. 314 ; id. Faun. 

 Pkoc. Zool. Soc— 1901, Vol. I. No. XXL 21 



