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NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



evidence I have of a crocodile having occurred there is that 



suppHed by Mariner ("Natives of the Tonga Islands," i. 1817, 



p. 334), who, from hearsay, describes how an enormous lizard, 



which he supposed must have been a crocodile, had destroyed 



nine people before being captured. "It was the first animal of 



the kind the natives had ever seen or ever heard of." I have 



not access to Strauch's work (Syn. Crocod., pp. 52 and 99, 



1866), but it seems probable that both Lesson (Ann. des Sci. Nat. 



V. 182.5, p. 184, footnote) and Strauch had included Fiji on the 



authority of the account mentioned, the latter writer surmising 



that the species must have been C. hiporcatus { = C. porosus). 



Mariner's account was supplied (to Martin) in 1811, and the 



reported occurrence took place probably years before that 



date; since when no crocodile has ever been heard of. The 



status of the crocodile in Fiji is that, not of a resident but 



of a single accidental visitant ; we are therefore, I submit, 



scarcely justified in continuing to include it as a member of the 



fauna of that group. At the same time I inquired of Mr. 



Boulenger his authority for referring BrachyJophus to the Tongan 



or Friendly Islands (Boulenger, Cat. Lizards, Krit. Mus. ii., 



p. 192). Inasmuch as the Tongan Islands are of coral formation, 



and consequently the seat of an oceanic fauna, and since Brachy- 



lophus would appear to be a continental type, its occurrence there 



would not have been anticipated. Mr. Boulenger's reply was 



completely satisfactory, for he mentions that the British Museum 



had received a specimen, obtained by Mr. J. J. Lister at Tono-a- 



tabu. It would, however, be interestnig to a.scertain if the 



Tongans were in the habit of bringing the lizard from Fiji, as 



we know they used to carry other Fijian articles, such as parrots, 



pottery, and produce of all sorts. In this way the suggested 



anomaly might be explained, or indeed it might be that the 



lizards or their eggs had found passage by natural conveyance ; 



perhaps much after the manner of A7nhlyrhynchus and Conolophus 



in the Galapagos Islands, creatures which have apparently died 



■out in their ancestral home. The question I would raise is— Is 



Brachylophus found wild, feral, or as a pet only, in Tonga % 



