Lizards 



To quote his own quaint cle- 

 saw here [Sharks' Bay] included 

 shape and size with other guanos, 

 remarkable particulars, for tliese 

 and had no tail, and at the 

 they had a stump of a tail which 

 not really, such being without 

 seemed by this means to have 

 A specimen of the stump- 

 at the Eegent's Park Gardens, 

 tunity for its conijiarison in the 

 Fine specimens of the stump- 

 10 inches in length, and are 

 however, being very small and 

 is covered with large, over- 

 tion with its customarily dark 

 to it a marked resemblance to 



Photo hij W. Snvlllc-Kmt, F.Z.S., 

 yHfonl-on-Sca. 



COMMON SKIKK. 



Lives and burrows in the sand, coming 

 out when tlie sun shines. 



579 



scription : "The land animals we 

 a sort of guanos of the same 

 but differing from them in three 

 had a larger and uglier head, 

 rump, instead of a tail there, 

 appeared like anotlier head, but 

 mouth or eyes ; yet this creature 

 a head at each end." 

 tailed lizard is usnally on view 

 and will afford visitors an oppor- 

 flesh with Dampier's description, 

 tail will measure as much as 

 thick in proportion, the legs, 

 weak. The surface of the back 

 lapping scales, that, in conjunc- 

 brown or blackish hue, convey 

 a long, imbricated fir-cone. On 



the under-surface the scales are in comparison very small ; the colouring in this region is also 

 usually light grey or yellow, variegated with darker reticulations. 



Stump-tails make most good-natured and grotesque household pets. Of two examples 

 which were for some j^ears in the writers possession a characteristic i:)hotograph is reproduced 

 below. When basking in the sun, the tail often becomes distended to enormous proportions. 

 The internal substance of this abnormally dilated organ consists chiefly of fatty tissue, and it 

 seems probable that it fulfils the role of a reservoir for the storage of nutrient and heating 

 materials, to be drawm upon during hibernation. The winter months in the southern districts 

 of Western Australia are cold, and this lizard, in common with other local species, retires 

 during that season into the sheltering recess of a hollow tree-stump or rock-crevice until the 

 sun is again in the ascendant. The stump-tail is practically omnivorous in its habits. In 

 captivity fruit, and more especially bananas, constitute a favourite diet, but it will also greedily 

 devour worms, beetles, and garden-snails, and may consequently be turned to good account as 

 a destroyer of garden-pests. 



Of other Australian members of the Skink Famih^, the Great Cyclodcs, or Blde-tongued 

 Lizard, may be mentioned. This species, which is about 18 inches long, presents no abnormal 

 development of head or tail, as in the form last described. The body is smooth and sub-cylindrical, 

 and with its closely set scales resembles that of a snake. The dominant colour is a soft 

 steel or silvery grey, variegated with darker or lighter cross-bands and reticulations that are 

 most strongly marked on the sides ; the under-surface, by way of contrast, is most usually pale 



rhotohy W. Saii'dlc-Kcnt, F.Z.S.'i 



[M'//o,d-o,'-tim. 



AUSTRALIAN STUMP-TAILED LIZARDS. 

 Two of the author's household pets. 



