The sun., 1919-07-13
Australia Contributes Most, Curious
Creatures, Including the Echidna
With Tongue Nearly as Long {
- as Its Body, the Giant Monitor
-
,.... and Double Headed Lizard
BY HERBERT ASBURY.

Inc hOnltOT IL tOuHu Jaw
In Australia and New Zealand and
has always been an object OF con-
siderable curiosity to scientists. OH
cials OF the Museum OF Natural His
tory, when they were reconstructing
the dinosanr. took many photographs
Of the big lizard, both stills and
movies. and In that way they believed
they learned great deal about how
the prehistoric monster walked. Incl
dentaliy photographs Of an alligator
were used for the same purpose. The
Monitor, however, Is land animal
and not an amphibian like the alli-
gator. It's body Is covered with a
loose, brownish gray skin and scales
are on Its tail
The double headed lizard is also
called the stump tail and the shingle
back. the latter because It's back looks
like the shingled roof OF q house. To
all appearances It has two heads. one
on each end. and the Illusion would :
perfect IL two eyes were painted on
its rearward head" Its legs are SO
arranged that 1t can run either way
with equal facility and with equal
speed. II never has to turn around
in order. to go In an opposite direction
to what 1t had been going. 1t merely
reverses its legs and they start travel
ling the other way. Unless ones vision
is wonderfully clean " Is difficult to
tell whether the lizard is coming or
going. or which way 1t is headed.
Both OF the heads OF this lizard are
diamond shaped, although rather
blunt at the apex of the triangle. For
a long time the specimens at the Zoo
were in the glass cages with the rest
OF the reptiles in the snake house,
but they refused to eat before the eyes
OF the curious multitude and had to he
put outside in a pen adjoining the
Monitor. They eat ants and insects
or practically anything else that is
thrown to them. They are fat. squat
little things. about a foot long and
about as big as a boys forearm. They
bite, but their bite Is not dangerous
and they are more Shiny looking than
even the majority of snakes.
But the dean OF all the snakes and
animals in the reptile house Is Old
Methuselah the turtle, who is some
400 years old, as determined by
scientists. who read his age by the
markings on his she'll in much the
same way that foresters tell the age OF
a tree. Methuselah weighs some SIC
pounds, and is strong enough to carry
three men on his back.
Can Ride on Their Backs.
Another turtle of the same species
in the pen with him is a mere child OF
hn1 d
as Methuselah. These animals come
from the Galapagos Islands, a group OF
thirteen volcanic islands in the Pacific
Ocean near the Equator and 730 m!lel
from the coast OF Ecuador, and can b'
found nowhere else in the world. In
deed, they are practically extinct there
as tourists have killed great numbers
Of them by turning them over on theii
backs and leaving them to die.
The specimens at the Bronx Zoo ar,
very fine ones, and with the exception
OF several in the London Zoo are tn,
only tortoises OF this species know
TO be in captivity. Both Methuselal
and his baby brother are very tame
They'll let people ride on their back
and they'll follow any one forever
practically. so long as a banana Il
held out as bait. But they'll eat any
thing. The other day some one threw
Methuselah a lighted cigarette, whicl
he. swallowed with great gusto, al
though his subsequent activity CAV
rise to the belief that he didn't partic
ularly enjoy 1t.
Perhaps the two snakes In the rep
, tile house that get the most attention
from the passing crowd. with the pos
sibie exception of the diamond, bacI
RATHER that recently was. captured b!
Gladys Ditmars. are the Hooded Cobri
and the Python. both OF which came L
the Zoo from India. The python
twenty.three feet long. almost as lon
as these snakes ever get althoug
, there have been many unauthenticate
, stories OF hunters and explorers VIII
I claim TO have soon specimens thirt
| and even forty feet long. The pytho
, at the Bronx Zoo Is between 80 and I
years old and has been In captiv.t
} twelve years. It's principal food
; young pigs weighing between thirt
1 and forty pounds, although. OF course
. any other animal would be equally az
= bceptable. At the present prices OF por
b ii would seem that II would be rattle
Of expensive boarder. but the contrary
. true, inasmuch as II eats only ever
: two or three months. Once the bi
! Isnake went twenty-threo months with
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