i 82 the living animals ol the world 
Phnt„ by IV. SavilU-Kint. F.Z.S.] 
BLUE-TONGUED LIZARDS 
1 Mitford-on-Sea 
salmon-pink. The tongue of 
this lizard, which gives to it 
its popular title, is somewhat 
remarkable. It is large and 
flat, and of a bright blue tint, 
resembling nothing so much 
as a piece of blue flannel. 
The animal, as it moves about, 
is in the habit of constantly 
protruding and 
retracting 
Its 
female 'with her family of tivel've 
tongue, which consequently 
constitutes a very conspicuous 
object. In common with the 
majority of its allies, the blue- 
tongued lizard is viviparous; 
but while the stump-tail only 
produces one at a time, which 
is nearly half as large as the 
parent, the present form giv'es 
birth to as many as ten or 
twelve. An e.xample in the writer’s possession on one occasion presented him with a litter 
embracing the larger number, and afforded the material for the photograph here reproduced. 
As a contrast to the two preceding forms, the Spine-T.\ILED Lizards, with their short, flat, 
spiky tails, may be cited as a conclusion to this notice of the Skink Family. There are 
nine known members of the same genus, all inhabitants of Australia. The lower of the two 
forms here figured is especially abundant on one island of the Abrolhos group, off the 
Western Australian coast. This e.xample is represented at about two-thirds of its natural 
size. It is an interesting fact that an allied but considerably larger species monopolises 
a neighbouring island of the same group, the two species not intermingling: probably 
the larger one would prey on the smaller. The largest member of the genus, known 
as Cunningham’s Spine-tail, of a uniform black hue, peppered white, is not infrequently 
brought to Europe, and two examples which were for some years in the writer’s possession bred 
regularly, producing eight 
or ten young at a time 
for several consecutive years. 
The fact that these lizards 
enjoyed full liberty in a 
heated greenhouse, with a 
temperature and surrounding 
conditions closely identical 
with those to which they 
were naturally accustomed, no 
doubt contributed e.xtensively 
to their fertility. 
With this group we are 
compelled by lack of space 
to close our account of the 
true lizards, but the reader 
must understand that only a 
very few out of an enormous savilu.Ker.,,F.z.s.^ 
number have been mentioned SPINE-TAILED LIZARDS, WESTERN AUSTRALIA 
at all. These h-zards are essentially •vegetarian in thetr habtts 
