29 



viz., the habitual use of the long and muscular tail as a weapon 

 of offence. Whenever the animals became excited either by 

 the suspicious movements of one another, or by being touched 

 by a rod, or even by the too close presence of spectators, most 

 vigorous blows that resounded against the sides of the cage 

 were struck with this organ. The striking of the blow could 

 generally be anticipated by the preparatory attitude in which 

 the tail was held, that is to say, it was flexed well to one side in 

 a curved position, the muscles being manifestly tense. To pre- 

 vent any obstruction to the blow the thick proximal part and 

 the end of the tail were held clear of the ground so that it 

 touched only by a limited length of its middle portion. 

 Mr. Gillen, who was well acquainted with these animals, in- 

 formed me that he once saw a large Perentie knock down a 

 native woman in this way by a blow on the legs, and Mr. 

 Warren writes that he had known both forelegs of a dog to be 

 broken in a similar manner. No one who has seen the force 

 of these blows could have any difficulty in accepting such 

 statements. 



This offensive use of the tail is described ( 2 > in the case of 

 Varanus salvator, apparently the largest member of this group, 

 which inhabits Ceylon, the Malay Peninsula, and the islands 

 of the Malay Archipelago, and extends, according to the 

 British Museum Catalogue of Lizards (1885), to the 

 Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, but I have not 

 seen the habit noticed in the case of Varanus giganteus. 

 It is, however, not unlikely a common feature of the 

 larger members of the group. When alarmed the Peren- 

 ties have a habit of running up trees in their efforts 

 to escape, which they do with extraordinary swiftness ; they 

 have been known, also, to run up a man or a horse, probably, in 

 their alarm, mistaking these vertical objects for trees. On one 

 occasion, at Alice Springs, Mr. Gillen treated the lacerated 

 breasts of a lubra who had been attacked by one, and, according 

 to this informant, the blacks, who have a fear of these animals, 

 state that such attacks were not uncommon. It may be, how- 

 ever, that the attacks are not deliberate, but that in their 

 alarm and desire to escape they run up the first vertical object 

 that presents itself, under which circumstances wounds would 

 not unlikely result from the very sharp and strong claws or 

 even from the teeth. 



Notwithstanding the fear of the natives for these reptiles 

 their flesh is esteemed a great delicacy, and it is no doubt in 

 consequence of the appreciation of it by the adults that it is 

 one of the foods (which, it may be observed, are generally of 

 some gastronomic merit) that are forbidden to uninitiated boys 



(2) "Reptiles of the World," R. L. Ditmars. 



