GARMAN : THE REPTILES OF EASTER ISLAND. 5 



mation concerning people and customs. That the early writers say 

 nothing ahout reptiles is not to be interpreted as if owing to non- 

 existence hut merely to non-observance ; several of their statements are 

 repeated here. Why the tortoises should have escaped their notice so 

 completely does not appear; shells and skulls are always in evidence 

 where tortoises are consumed. Captain James Cook, 1774, in his second 

 voyage, gives many details relating to the island and its inhabitants. 

 In regard to the forests the condition apparently had become worse. 

 His men saw "not an animal of any sort and but very few birds." 

 " They have a few tame fowls, such as cocks and hens, small but well 

 tasted. They have also rats, which, it seems, they eat ; for I saw a man 

 with some dead ones in his hand ; and he seemed unwilling to part with 

 them, giving me to understand they were for food. Land birds there 

 were hardly any; and sea birds but few; these were, men of war, tropic, 

 and egg birds, nodies, tern, &c. The coast seemed not to abound with 

 fish ; at least we could catch none with hook and line, and it was but very 

 little we saw amongst the natives." Vol. I, p. 288. La Perouse, 1786, 

 made additions to the fauna in the sheep, goats, and pigs he left. He 

 says : " La cote m'a paru peu poissonneuse, et je crois que presque tous 

 les comestibles de ces habitans sont tires du regne vegetal." Beechey, 

 who visited the island in 1825, like his predecessors, found the people 

 and their sculptures of first interest. He decided that the natives were 

 "allied in language and customs to many islands in the South Sea," in 

 none of which were such images. He tells us there was not a quad- 

 ruped on the island in Eoggewein's time, and adds, "nor has any one 

 except the rat ever been seen there," Vol. I, p. 56. When discovered, 

 the island is said to have "abounded in woods and forests, and palm 

 branches were presented as emblems of peace ; but fifty years after- 

 wards, when visited by Captain Cook, there were no traces of them left." 

 What is known of the fauna through the early literature contains 

 nothing satisfactory on the herpetology. In Thomson's narrative, 

 1891 in the Smithsonian Report for 1889, there is matter of more perti- 

 nence. This article has more general information than those which 

 preceded it. From it we get a better idea of the plant and animal life. 

 Of animals there were on the island at this time, according to this 

 author, neat cattle, rough little horses, many sheep, some rats, a 

 few large and wild cats, some dogs, and some domestic fowls. " There 

 are no quadrupeds peculiar to the island except several varieties of 

 rodents." No small land birds, "only the tropic or man-of-war bird, 

 petrels, gulls, and a variety of aquatic birds." The following concerning 



