Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.
AUSTRALIAN TREE-LIZARD.
This species also runs on its hind legs.
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 Family, 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 expansive beard-like development of the cuticle immediately underneath the animal's chin. As in the frilled lizard, this cuticular excrescence 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 interlocked 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 every day by taking them into the garden and placing them in communication with a swarming ant-track. By careful observation it was found that no less than from 1,000 to 1,500 ants were devoured by each lizard at a single sitting. The ant-devouring proclivities of these prickly little lizards can no doubt be turned to very useful and effective account in clearing ant-infested domiciles, and were in fact thus utilised by the writer on more than one occasion.
Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.
AUSTRALIAN WATER-LIZARD.