LIZARDS. 89 
original millinery notion may be as the breath of life. The novelty of the design, and 
the rare nature of the “trimmings” brought from the earth’s uttermost end, may be 
unhesitatingly guaranteed. And, notwithstanding that grave objections might possibly 
be raised by paterfamilias or in ecclesiastical quarters concerning the scriptural 
injunction against “sacrificing our daughters to Moloch,” the charms of piquant 
originality added to those already possessed by the fair wearer will be such as to 
triumphantly overcome all scruples, and to secure for her the highest mede of envy 
and admiration. 
Among the lizard pets that proved specially amenable to domestication in the 
author’s hands during his later Western Australian peregrinations, a prominent position 
must be given to the species photographically represented by two illustrations on the 
next page. This type, Trachysaurus rugosus, locally known both as the “ Stump-tailed” 
and the “Sleepy” Lizard, is of relatively common occurrence throughout the temperate 
districts of the Australian Continent, the individual here figured having been obtained 
from the neighbourhood of Pinjarrah, W.A. The conspicuous features of this lizard 
are the massiveness of the head, the large size of the scales, the shortness and thickness 
of the tail, and the diminutive dimensions of the limbs compared with the corpulent 
body. Its colour varies through innumerable tints of golden, yellow, red or purple 
browns, relieved on the sides and under surface by marbled patterns in which a creamy 
or ivory white predominates. From fifteen to eighteen inches represents its normal 
adult length, the specimen, a comparatively young one, here photographed from life 
in two characteristic positions, measuring close upon one foot. The photograph 
forming the lower figure on that page serves particularly well to illustrate the relative 
small size of the scales on the under surface, the fine reticulated pattern of the 
surface markings, of his, so to say, delicately embroidered waistcoat, and the grotesquely 
small, and at the same time uniform, proportions of the four limbs. To successfully 
obtain this rather peculiar pose the animal was held struggling in the folds of a rough 
bath towel while the camera was brought to the right focus and the shutter snapped. 
This article—a bath towel—it may be mentioned, forms a most admirable background 
when photographically immortalising animals of this description, and has, as will be 
easily recognised, been made to do duty on a variety of occasions for the pictorial 
illustrations of this volume. 
When first captured this individual, in common with other examples of the. 
same species, exhibited a highly pugnacious disposition, hissing vehemently and 
snapping savagely with its widely distending jaws. A bite from this lizard is, as a 
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