UTE MAIL HEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 April 1920, Page 1

UTE MAIL HEWS.

NEW REPTILE

LONDON, Feb. 24.

Discovered by a soldier scientist during the campaign in' German East Africa, two examles of an entirely new species of reptile, the Tcstudo Loveridgii, are now in the Zoological Gardens, London.

At last night’s scientific meeting of the Zoological Society an account of it " as given by Mr Houlengcr, the Curator of Reptiles, who pointed out that this was the only reptile without ribs.

The Loveridgii is a flattened, softshelled tortoise that undergoes remarkable changes on reaching maturity. When young it lias an ordinary domeshaped carapace, and its ribs are to bo found on the inside of the plates, just as in all tortoises and turtles. As it grows its plates soften into a more pattern and seem to be absorbed back into its body with the exception cf those at the edge of the carapace (the marginal plates). Its shape becomes curiously flat and the ribs disappear. It is then exceedingly active for a tortoise, practically adopting the life of a lizard and living in rocky crannies. This life lias induced it to adopt an extraordinary protective device. Mr Loveridgo, the discoverer, found it most difficult to dislodge from the holes in tho rock where it lived. To his astonishment tliis was due to the tortoise inflating itself and so wedging itself in its position.

Tlio Tcstudo Loveridgii are exhibited just inside the reptile house on tile right-hand side on entering. They are eight or nine inches long, about five inches wide, and (uninflated) less than two inches “deep.” In colour they are a light golden brown.

]’OILING WATER BATTLE. NEW YORK, Ed). 20,

ILnv ;i woman lought two bailiffs and 20 policemen with boiling water, a poker, heavy tools, and other weapons in defence of her furniture has just been told in the police court at Philadelphia by a number of battered eons'ables.

The scene they described might have been taken by the passeis-bv for the re hearsal of a knockabout film comedy. Failing to obtain payment by instalments on goods supplied to a lusty Irishwoman, -Mrs Ellen Gallagher, a local furniture company sent two bailiffs with a writ to seize the contents of her flat.

-Mrs Gallagher refused to open the door to the bailiffs’ summons and pour" ed scalding water on the unhappy men through a skylight. They broke in the door, but were met in the passage by -Mrs Gallagher, who, ignoring appeals to reason, counter-attacked with a poker, which she bent nearly double on one of their heads.

The attackers • retired and telephoned for reinforcements, who anived in the shape of 20 policemen in a patrol wagon of the type familiar to kinema patrons. Tumbling out of the wagon in the best kinema style, the constables dashed up the stairs into the flat. Mrs Gallagher promptly bombed them out with two large jars of turpentine. Tile attackers were unsupported by artillery, but launched a fresh assault. They were met by two large monkey wrenches, one of which removed most of one noliceman’s teeth. At the same time a :ream of "liquid fire,” in the shape of boiling water, spread dismay among them. But a third attack,, which included a flanking movement through a neighbouring flat, was successful. Four large policemen held Airs Gallagher down, while the remainder of the force removed the furniture. Then the still unsubdued “garrison” was bundled into the patrol wagon, which, having deposited the “wounded” at Mount Sinai Hospital conveyed her to a cell.