33 



these apertures being widest at points corresponding to the 

 centres of the lobules and becoming narrower and more slit- 

 like towards their ends, where they still remained attached. 



The combined weight of the two masses in the largest 

 specimen at the close of a three and a half months' starvation 

 period was 2 lb. 



Concerning the full significance of these fat bodies our 

 knowledge is still incomplete, but according to C. K. Hoff- 

 mann ( 6 ) they correspond to the corpora adiposa of Amphi- 

 bians and have some relation to the sexual activities, a view 

 which is supported by their periodic increase and decrease of 

 size. They reach, says this writer, their maximum of de- 

 velopment in Spring. From the composition of these bodies 

 it is also reasonable to suppose that they may serve as reser- 

 voirs of fat to be utilized for nutritional purposes during the 

 hybernation period, but if so it is remarkable that they should 

 still have been so large (constituting 12 per cent, of the total 

 body weight) at the close of the long fast, when all other obvious 

 adipose tissue had disappeared from the body. As, however, 

 the animals when killed had evidently shrunk in bulk, par- 

 ticularly in respect to the region of the trunk, it is very prob- 

 able that some amount of reduction in the fat masses had taken 

 place. 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATE IV. 



Varanus giganteus. 



The three figures, taken from life, represent the animals in 

 characteristic attitudes. In figs. 1 and 2 the larger specimen 

 shows the gular pouch inflated to a moderate degree ; the latter 

 figure also shows the body completely raised from the ground, 

 and the tail, here concealed behind the body, was also similarly 

 raised, as well as strongly flexed. The great length of the tail 

 is shown in figs. 1 and 3, and the snake-like appearance of the 

 head is seen in the case of the smaller animal in both these 

 figures. 



<6)Bronn's Thierleben Abt 3, Peptilien (Eidechsen und Wa- 

 serechsen, p. 994). 



