LIZARDS. 



431 



eggs, but also by following the young in the water, where it can easily capture them, being 

 a most active swimmer. When full grown, the monitor — called so from the notion 

 that the animal gives an alarm on the approach of any poisonous snake — not infre- 

 'quently reaches the length of five or six feet. V. salvator even grows to a gi-eater 

 length. It is an inhabitant of India, and is also abundantly found in the more marshy 

 localities of the Malayan peninsula, where it is often seen among the branches of 

 trees overhanging some stream or pond, in search of young birds or lizards, and from 



Fig. 248. — Teius teyw-xim. 



iP/i?:y''^'' 



which, on being disturbed, even though it be at a considerable height, it plunges 

 into the water and quickly swims away to its hole under some neighboring bank ; 

 from which it is only too often dug out for food by the lower Hindus. 



The family Xantfsiid^ is closely allied to the Teiidae, though it diffei's in having 

 the tongue but slightly- incised, and the skull of a different structure. The family 

 includes but a single genus, Xantusia, which has a slender, cylindrical body, femoral 

 pores, three folds of skin on the throat, the pupil vertical, and the eye unprotected by 

 lids. A single species, X. vigilis, inhabits Lowei- California. 



