68 Habits of Sea-lizards 



three inches long, are buried in the sand near the 

 beach. The youngsters have been seen playing to- 

 gether like puppies. Sea-lizards seem to be very self- 

 contained animals, without much in the way of 

 inter-relations, but Mr. Beebe saw one creeping over 

 a sea-lion as indifferently as over a rock, and he saw 

 another allow a big red crab to come crawling over 

 his scale-covered body and pick off three ticks. The 

 dull black and gray coloring makes them very incon- 

 spicuous in spite of their large size, and the camou- 

 flaging is perfected by the rough clinker-like scales 

 on the head and the long row of tooth-like scales 

 which extend along the middle dorsal line of body and 

 tail. But we have no right to use the word "camou- 

 flaging" in regard to an animal that has no enemies 

 save man. All that we can say is that the sea-lizards 

 are as congruent with the lava as with the seaweed- 

 covered rocks. 



One of the characteristics of living creatures is 

 their ability to make the most of niches of oppor- 

 tunity. In these sea-lizards this is well illustrated. 

 They are large Iguanids of a thoroughly terrestrial 

 stock; they have a near relative (Conolophus), also 

 of large size, and also confined to the Galapagos 

 Islands. But while Conolophus has remained on dry 

 land and has learned to feed on cactuses and the like, 

 Amblyrhynchus has found its chance of survival 

 among the seaweeds of the shore. The two kinds are 

 near relatives, as we have said; they are probably 

 scions of a common stock, geologically marooned long 

 ago on the Galapagos land. But one has become par- 



