REPTILIA. 
iO 
they once get a habit of coming to a poultry-yard destroy and 
carry them off without noise. They appear to be exclusively 
carnivorous, and w'e have seen one of them follow and hunt a 
rat with great eagerness : they usually inhabit hollow trees or 
holes in rocks ; we have occasionally seen them in holes in 
trees at a very great height from the ground. They are 
common among rocks near the beacli, and in impenetrable 
thickets of Pandaii in mangrove creeks, whence they come 
out to bask in the sand or mud. When wounded they display 
great tenacity of life, and bite most furiously when caught. 
The flesh is much esteemed by the natives for its supposed re- 
storative and invigorating properties, and when curried it much 
resembles chicken. At Manila these creatures are regularly 
sold in the markets, and fetch a good price : the dried skin is 
readily bought by the Chinese, who use it in some of their 
indescribable messes of gelatinous soup. 
Tribe Geissosanra. 
Fani. Scincidse. 
Genus TiJiqua. 
Tiliqna rufescens (Gray, Cat. Brit. Mus.). 
Euprepes Seb<e (Dum. et Bib.), 
Carrooijg (Malay name). 
Colour — olivaceous brown above, passing into a very light shade 
of the same colour beneath ; the scales on the back are slightly 
edged with blackish brown on the lateral margins, forming faint 
longitudinal dark lines ; on the sides these lines are more distinct, 
and some of the scales are whitish brown on tbe central part, giving 
a more prominent appearance to the dark lines ; on the upper 
surface of the limbs the dark colour passes round each scale, giving 
them, one with another, a reticulated aspect. 
Scales on the back have three distinct longitudinal ridges ; these 
become faint on the side-scales, and those on the belly are quite 
smooth. Ears rounded, open. Tail long, and very tapering. 
Total length, 1 foot. 
Length of tail, 7^ inches. 
„ of fore leg, from junction of body to end of the longest 
toe, 1 inch 2i lines ; the third and fourth toes are 
longest and equal. 
„ of hind leg, to the end of the fourth toe (which is the 
longest), 1 inch 9|- lines. 
„ of head, from ear to end of muzzle, 9^ lines. 
„ of anterior corner of eye to end of muzzle, 4 lines. 
