Re: what do monitor lizards monitor?

[Copperhead <agkistrodon@mindspring.com>]

At 11:39 AM 09/30/1999 +0100, you wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>Monitor lizards are known in Arab countries as the Ouran or varan. Apparently
>"Ouran" sounds a bit like a German word, (for "Sentry" I think) that was
later
>mis-translated into English as "Monitor". I don't have the exact text with me
>(it's somewhere in Rodney Steel's "Living Dragons").
>
>
>It's not just called "varan" in Arab countries, but here in Holland too. I
>      actually had a bit of a tough time exactly understand what kind of
animal
>      was meant when I first encountered "monitor lizard" (I think that
was in
>      the Dinosaur Heresies) until I somehow made/found the connection to the
>      group of animals I already knew as "varanen" ("varaan" if you're
talking
>      about just one of the critters) in Dutch.
>
>
>
>Greetings,
>
>Jarno Peschier
>
>
(Decloaking)

>From Webster's Third New International (the unexpurgated version):

Monitor ..... 3 also _monitor lizard_ (so called from the belief that such
lizards give warning of the presence of crocodiles)....

Agkistrodon