Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.
AUSTRALIAN STUMP-TAILED LIZARDS.
Two of the author's household pets.
Of other Australian members of the Skink Family, the Great Cyclodus, or Blue-tongued Lizard, may be mentioned. This species, which is about 18 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 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 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 gives birth to as many as ten or twelve. An example 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.
Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.
BLUE-TONGUED LIZARDS.
A female with her family of twelve.
As a contrast to the two preceding forms, the Spine-tailed 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 example 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 extensively to their fertility.
