170 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 rapidity, aided only by 
its long, laterally compressed tail. Examples 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 ” which 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 Eamily, 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 clothed with rough imbricated scales, 
but whose chief peculiarity consists of the ex- 
pansive 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 when young 
and more slender will also ascend saplings, on which they sleep, clinging by their inter- 
locked claws. 
Another member of the Agama Family which invites brief notice is the so-called York 
Devil, or Mountain-devil, 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 prickles by which 
its head and limbs and body are effectually protected. 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’ houses being its prime favourite. 
These are picked up one by one by the rapid flash-like protrusion and retraction of the 
little creature’s adhesive tongue, and the number of ants which are thus assimilated by a 
Moloch 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 
Photo by W, Saville^Kent^ F.Z»S. 
AUSTRALIAN TREE-LIZARD 
TAis species also runs on its hind legs 
