A LETI'ER FROM MAORI-LAND. 81 



Perhaps the most singular of New Zealand reptiles is the 

 well-known Tantara lizard, Sphenodoti pundatum (Gray). This 

 lizard has long been an object of interest to naturalists from the 

 unique position which it occupies amongst living reptiles. It 

 seems that it stands in a position nearer to that of the birds than 

 any other reptile, and that it also serves as a link between the 

 lizards proper and the crocodiles. 



It is said that this lizard has the curious habit of living in 

 perfect harmony and in the same burrow with a small tern, the 

 bird occupying one side of the chamber at the end of the burrow 

 and the lizard the other. This is not our experience, for we have 

 found both bird and reptile, but in different burrows. The Tantara 

 lizard is not common, being now found only on some of the 

 islands composing the Barrier group off Auckland. It is a pretty 

 creature, nocturnal in its habits, and is quite harmless. We are 

 informed by people who have camped on the islands where it 

 occurs, that at night it comes crawling about the camp, attracted 

 by the light and the fire, much to the alarm of those who regard 

 all such creatures with aversion. 



Of late, our great aim has been the collection of the bones of 

 the Moa, that curious, extinct, wingless bird which has attracted 

 so much attention. There were several species of Moa. Some 

 attained the height of ten feet, whilst others did not exceed three 

 feet. The Moa was hunted by the Maori, and it is about their old 

 camping grounds that we search for the remains of the feast — the 

 dry bones, which, I may safely say, furnish a richer feast to the 

 Pakeha (white man) than did ever the flesh to the old Maori. By 

 carefully searching the sandhills along the Manaia and Patna 

 beaches at Whangarie, we have found many good specimens of 

 different bones of Dinoniis parvus (Owen), D. Oweni (Haast), 

 and of D. Gracilis (Owen). It was only the other day that in 

 exploring one of the numerous little caves in one of the lava 

 fields near Auckland, that we came on a skeleton of D. Owaii 

 in a fair state of preservation. It was very interesting to 

 find the curious calcareous rings of the throat lying beside the 

 neck vertebrae, and the other bones in their natural position. The 

 Moa seems to have had a habit of retiring to the dark recesses of 

 caves and holes to die, and to this habit science owes some of the 



