THE HABITS OF LIZARDS 



and condition of the animal itself has also much to do with 

 its liveliness. 



Some of the species are of small size, never exceeding 

 3 in. or 4 in. in length ; but the larger kinds are said to 

 attain from 6 ft. to 7 ft. in length. Their mode of repro- 

 duction is various ; many kinds produce the young alive, 

 others deposit their eggs in a warm situation, and leave 

 them to hatch out and provide for themselves. 



The larger species, such as the monitors of Africa 

 and Australia, feed upon animal food, and their swift- 

 ness in moving enables them to capture birds as well as 

 mammals ; they are as active in the trees as on the 

 ground, and they devour large numbers of eggs and of 

 young birds. 



When one of these lizards finds a nest of eggs the skil- 

 ful method it has of taking up an egg in its mouth is 

 remarkable. The creature turns its nose upwards, before 

 crushing the shell, in order that the contents may flow 

 down its throat ; or should the egg contain a nearly 

 hatched young one, the blood and other fluids are swal- 

 lowed with the crushed shell and chick ; the long forked 

 tongue being thrust far out of the reptile's mouth, licking 

 up on all sides with great relish any particle that may 

 have escaped at the sides of its mouth. 



Should a rat or other small mammal fall in its way, 

 the monitor at once seizes it, and like a rat-killing dog, 

 shakes and knocks it about on the ground until it is 

 stunned or killed, and then swallows it whole, some- 

 times using its claws to free the sides of the mouth from 

 the claws or toes of the victim should they become, as 

 they sometimes do, fixed in that part. The power in the 

 jaws exerted by these animals is incredible, when crush- 

 ing the ribs and other bones of the animals upon which 

 they feed, and the determined manner with which they 



193 o 



