568 



The Living Animals of the World 



other circumstances it progresses on all-fours, after the manner of the ordinary members of 

 its class. 



Several other lizards belonging to the family group of the Agamas have been demon- 

 strated by the writer to move in the same manner as the frilled species. Leseur's 

 Water-lizard, also a Queensland form, which attains to a length of 3 or 4 feet, is a 

 notable example in this connection. As implied by its name, it is semi-aquatic in its 

 habits. It frequents scrubs in the neighbourhood of river-banks and backwaters, and passes a 

 considerable portion of its time in shallow water with only its nostrils elevated above the 

 surface. It is a most expert swimmer, sculling itself with grace and rajjidity, aided only by 

 its long, laterally compressed tail. Exam2)les brought to England and kept alive for some 

 years by the writer were observed, in hot weather more particularly, to sleep at nights in 

 their water-tanks. 



The several instances of bipedal locomotion among living lizards, as here chronicled, are 



of especial interest in correlation with the 

 circumstance that certain extinct Dinosaurs 

 habitually progressed on their hind limbs 

 only. They, in fact, have left " footprints on 

 the sands of time ' w'hich indubitably prove 

 this assumption. There is, however, no 

 relationship between the two groups, and 

 the resemblance is one of pure analogy, 

 just as both bats and birds fly, although 

 they have no kinship. 



Among other interesting lizards included 

 in the Agama Family, mention may be 

 made of the singular Jew or Bearded 

 Lizard of Australia — a flattened, broad-set 

 form, some 14 or 15 inches long, brown in 

 hue, and clotlied with rough imbricated scales, 

 bat whose chief peculiarity consists of the 

 expansive beard-like development of the cuticle 

 immediately underneath the animal's chin. 

 As in the frilled lizard, this cuticular ex- 

 crescence is only conspicuous when the 

 creature is excited, at other times being 

 contracted and indistinguishable from an 

 ordinary skin-fold. When retiring to rest, 

 these lizards, in their adult state, almost 

 invariably climb up and cling to the rough bark of a convenient tree, and wdien young 

 and more slender will also ascend saplings, on which they sleep, clinging by then- inter- 

 locked claws. 



Another member of the Agama Family wdiich invites brief notice is the so-called York 

 Devil, or JMountain-deml, of Western and Central Australia. This lizard is of comparatively 

 small size, rarely exceeding 6 or 7 inches in length. Its feeble form and stature, however, 

 are abundantly compensated for by the complex panoply of spines and i)riekles by which 

 its head and limbs and body are effectually i^rotected. The natural food of this singular 

 lizard consists exclusively of ants, the small black, evil-smelling species which often proves 

 itself a pest by its invasion of the Australian colonists' jiouses being its prime flivourite. 

 These are picked up one by one by the rapid flash-like protrusion and retraction of the 

 little creatine's adhesive tongue, and the number of ants which are thus assimilated by a 

 Aloloch lizard at a single meal is somewhat astonishing. A number of examples of this 

 species were kept by the writer in Australia, and their gastronomic requirements fully satisfied 



I'hotu bo ir. tiatdU-Ktnl, F.Z.ti.] IMUjord-on-Sta. 



AUSTRALIAN TREE-LIZARD. 



Thi-s species also runs on its hind le^. 



