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Show 1901.] LIZARDS OP T H E " SKEAT EXPEDITION." 309 the female, is roughly handled, and is prevented from using its powerful jaws, it flattens its body in such a way that the stripes of colour on the sides become most conspicuous. The female is unable to do this with such effect, as her ribs seem to be less mobile. Liolepis lives in holes in the ground, which often go down vertically for two feet before there is a bend in their course. The Malays say that the holes are dug by the lizard with the aid of claws and snout, but Liolepis is so timid that I have never been able to watch one digging. A male and female were generally captured iu each burrow, and the natives assured me that the lizard is strictly monogamous." A female I opened contained eight large eggs with leathery shells. In the stomach of another specimen I found remains of a large spider, several grasshoppers, and a quantity of vegetable food. Malay name, " Bewak pasir " (sand-lizard). Fam. VARANID.ZE. Two large species belonging to this family are common in suitable localities all over the Peninsula. These are Varanus salvator and V. nebulosus. Mr. Annandale has given me the following note concerning these species:-" V. salvator is perhaps more aquatic than V. nebulosus, otherwise their habits appear to be identical and they are equally at home in water, on land, or amongst the branches of trees. They lay their eggs in hollow tree-trunks. When in the water they swim beneath the surface, their legs closely applied to their sides ; the powerful tail functions both as a propeller and as a rudder. Their food is very varied. In the States of Patalung and Singgora, in which the Siamese practise a form of tree-burial, these great lizards are accused, and probably with justice, of devouring the corpses. I have disturbed a large monitor eating the body of one of its own kind which had evidently been dead for some days ; another when chased dropped from its mouth a small flying-squirrel (Sciuropterus); a third, which I dissected, had swallowed a small tortoise the carapace of which had been broken into innumerable little fragments; the stomachs of several others contained nothing but dung-beetles, for which Varani may often be seen hunting, turning over the dung of elephants or buffaloes with its fore feet." I have watched a small V. salvator eating a rat in the Botanical Gardens at Singapore. It shook the rat very violently, banging it against the walls of its cage and on the ground, then bit it all over, until presumably all the rat's bones were broken, then bolted it head first. They may sometimes lay their eggs in burrows. A specimen at Kuala Aring lived in a very long and deep burrow, so deep that we could not dig it out. In and near Tringganu they are especially plentiful near the burial grounds. VARANUS SALVATOR Laur. Varanus salvator, Boulenger, Cat. Liz. ii. p. 314; id. Faun. PROC. ZOOL. SOC-1901, VOL. I. No. XXI. 21 |