LIZARDS 
tnmo by SavilU-Ktntf i* Z.i’.J 
AUSTRALIAN STUMP-TAILED LIZARDS 
Two of the author's household pets 
\_Miifura- un.ota 
To quote his own quaint de- 
saw here [Sharks’ Bay] included 
shape and size with other guanos, 
remarkable particulars, for these 
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 Regent’s Park Gardens, 
tunity for its comparison in the 
Fine specimens of the stump- 
lO 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 by iV, Savillt~Kent^ F.Z,^ y 
Afilford^on^Sea 
COMMON SKINK 
Li'ves and burrows in the sand^ coming 
out when the sun shines 
scription : “The land animalswe 
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 another head, but 
mouth or eyes ; yet this creature 
a head at each end.” 
tailed lizard is usually 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 e.xamples 
which were for some years in the writer’s possession a characteristic photograph 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 rdle of a reservoir for the storage of nutrient and heating 
materials, to be drawn 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 Family, the Great Cvclodus, or Blue-TONGUED 
Liz.vrd, may be mentioned. This species, which is about i8 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 
