256 Transactions. — Zoology. 



about one inch, or a little less, from the fly, when as quick as light the dart 

 is made, and the fly is caught ; and then the little lizard rapidly knocks 

 about its prey from side to side as a terrier with a rat, not however striking 

 the fly against anything, merely shaking it. After a short time so spent 

 the lizard proceeds to swallow the fly, which it does by half opening its 

 mouth and di-awmg it in, and generally, after three or four movements of this 

 kind, the fly is gulped down whole — legs and wings and bristles ! Notwith- 

 standing its struggles, I have been surprised at two things here : (1.) that it 

 does not matter how the fly (or moth) is seized, whether by head or tail or 

 side, down it goes, in despite of its long legs and wings; and (2.) that such a 

 very small throat as the young ones have can so readily swallow a 

 tolerably large fly (or moth) whole, and that, too, without showing any 

 outward distention of the throat beneath ; for although it keeps its head 

 elevated, you cannot trace the prey going down the lizard's gullet ! The 

 larger adult lizards, however, do not knock about their heads with their 

 prey in their mouths ; they just give the usual two or three movements of 

 their jaws, and the fly is swallowed ! Sometimes it is one of the largest 

 " blue-bottles." And the young ones, I notice, do not now knock about 

 their heads when they have seized their prey so much as they did at first. 

 On two or three occasions, when flies have been rather scarce, and the 

 little lizards hungry, I have seen when one had got the fly into its mouth, 

 the other would make up towards it, arch its neck, and put on the usual 

 ferocious look, and, watching the time when the hzard with the fly in its 

 mouth should open its jaws to make its swallowing movement, dart forwards 

 and lay hold of the part of the fly outside of the mouth of the other. And 

 now they both hold on to the fly — the fly getting the worst of it between 

 them — and sometimes one and sometimes the other gets the prize ; and, on 

 more than one occasion, I have seen the fly get away from them after all 

 its pinching ! and fly and crawl about a little longer ; showing that so far 

 it was not greatly hurt. They often miss catching the fly when they make 

 their dart upon it, for it flies away when the hzard looks stupidly about ; 

 the escaped fly flies around the glass, and sometimes comes back to the 

 same spot or nearly so, and not unfrequently alights on the lizard's snout ! 

 When it does this, the lizard does not seek immediately to recapture it, and 

 sometimes it even turns and runs away from the fly! On several occasions, 

 when a fly has got into then- water-trough, and is there struggling, I have 

 seen them climb up and make a dart at it, and so take it in the water. I 

 have mentioned moths. On a few occasions, when without flies, I have 

 given the hzards a moth or two, of from 1 inch to 1^ inches in length, and 

 the lizards would catch and eat them just as they did flies, but the down 

 would stick to their lips for some time ere they managed to swallow it, 



