LIZARDS. 97 
recommendation of either of the foregoing Australian Varani as household pets would be 
a matter of supererogation. Large as are the dimensions of these living Monitors, the 
Australian tertiary deposits have produced conclusive evidence of pre-existing species 
which very much exceeded them in size. Certain of these, which have been referred 
to the genera Notiosaurus and Megalania, would appear to have attained to a length 
of no less than from fourteen to eighteen feet. A relatively small and handsome 
species of Monitor, technically known as Varanus acanthurus, or the Spiny-tailed 
Monitor, occurs in tolerable abundance in the north-west district of Western Australia, 
under conditions corresponding with those which yield the Frilled Lizard, 
Chlamydosaurus. An example of this Monitor was obtained for the writer at Roebuck 
Bay, and was also brought to England and presented by him to the Zoological 
Gardens. As with the species kept in Queensland, it always manifested a hostile 
attitude, attacking and worrying the Chlamydosauri, with which it was at first 
associated, and repelling all friendly overtures from its keeper. Its arrival in England 
and participation in the polite society of an innumerable company of other lizards, 
does not appear to have exercised any ameliorating influence upon this creature’s 
temper, which is as short and uncertain as when it was first captured, now over 
twelve months ago. 
A noteworthy feature in the Varani is their possession in a more readily 
recognisable degree than in any other lizards of that vestigeal structure known as the 
“pineal eye,” a minute functionless median optic organ situated on the top of the 
head, and intimately connected with the so-called pineal gland. In bygone ages this 
median eye possibly represented the chief or only optic organ of a doughty race of 
reptiles to whom the title of the Cyclops would have been both figuratively and 
literally appropriate. Some admirable dissections of this structure, made by Professor 
Charles Stewart, F.R.S., may be seen in the Museum of the Royal College of 
Surgeons. 
One of the rarest and handsomest lizards at the present time on view in the 
Zoological Society’s Menagerie is undoubtedly the Australian type Physignathus Leseuri, 
known as Leseur’s Water Lizard, from New South Wales. This example is over two 
feet long, with a fine massive head and particularly large intelligent eyes, having 
their lids delicately ciliated like those of Chlamydosaurus, which, in many respects, 
allowing for the entire absence of a frill-like membrane, it considerably resembles. As 
its name implies, its habits are semi-aquatic, and it displays a marked appreciation 
of the ample water supply provided for it in its allotted cage. Among the more 
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