This species is particularly abundant in Italy.
While the Monitor Family is not represented on the American Continent, we find there another group of lizards whose members are of considerable size, and agree in their carnivorous propensities and general habits in a marked manner with the Monitors. These are the "Greaved" Lizards, named with reference to the peculiar skin-folding on their legs. One of the largest and most familiarly known representatives of this group is the Teguexin, or Diamond-lizard, indigenous to the greater portion of tropical South America, and also to the West Indies. This lizard attains to a total length of a yard or more, and is of a robust and thick-set build, with the hind limbs much longer and stouter than the front ones. The colour of the teguexin is also notable, the ground-tint being olive or tawny yellow, upon which are superimposed black bands and markings which for the most part take a transverse direction. Like the Monitors, the teguexin in captivity exhibits a sulky and aggressive disposition, and cannot be safely kept in company with other less powerful species.
Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.
BANDED IGUANAS.
A rare species from the Fiji Islands. Male to the right; female without bands to the left. The example crouching between them is a bearded lizard.
The attribute of bipedal locomotion is possessed by the teguexin. That this singular method of progression was an accomplishment possessed by one of the larger tropical American lizards was first reported to the writer from Trinidad. Some species of iguana was, in the first instance, anticipated to be the acrobatic performer. Several examples of this family group were accordingly put through their paces at the Zoo, to ascertain if they could lay claim to the distinction. None of the iguanas available, however, rose (on their hind legs) to the occasion, and it was only on experimenting, as a dernière ressource, with the teguexin that a successful demonstration was accomplished. This lizard was found, in fact, to run bipedally more freely and persistently, when sufficient space was allotted it, than the Agamas. It seems singular that this bipedal power of locomotion should have so long remained undiscovered, and yet is possessed by lizards which have for a number of years been the denizens of many zoological gardens and other menageries. The fact that a comparatively large level area is a sine qua non for the exhibition of this phenomenon affords no doubt the explanation of this anomaly; but the anomaly itself at the same time serves to accentuate the desirability, in the interests of both science and the animals' comfort, that exists for providing them in captivity with a more liberal and reasonably sufficient space for their indulgence in those methods of locomotion that are natural to them in their native land.
Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.
SOUTH AFRICAN GIRDLED LIZARD.