160 THE VIVARIUM. 
was with me immediately opened the door of the den and seized 
one of the reptiles by the tail, and I shall not readily forget the 
ominous sound made by the animal’s closing jaws as he just 
missed the man’s fingers, at which he had snapped. I at once 
mentally resolved never to catch a Tuatera by the tail. As I 
congratulated the man upon his escape, he said, ‘‘I am a bit 
lucky this time, for I have only just come out of ’orspital, where 
IT have been laid up with blood-poisoning through the bite of one 
of them pythons.”’ 
The Tuateras, in common with many other Reptiles, have the 
power of reproducing a lost portion of their tail. These creatures 
are good burrowers, and if provided with the opportunity will 
soon make for themselves little caves, in which they will spend a 
great part of their time. They make these hiding-places 
generally at night. 
The Hatterias are by no means active animals, and they can 
hardly climb at all. Their run has a very comical appearance, 
for they move their legs in a stiff and oar-like manner. Usually 
they are most deliberate in all their movements, especially when 
they are eating, their jaws moving so extremely slow, that it is 
quite atrial of one’s patience to watch them complete a meal. 
When in confinement, these Reptiles will eat raw or cooked meat, 
live or dead mice, dead young birds, beetles, cockroaches, large 
earthworms, meal worms, and similar food. They have no little 
power of changing their colour, or perhaps it will be more correct 
to say that their colour is changeable to a certain degree. For 
example, sometimes their bodies will be of a light green tinge ; 
at others, of either a dark or light cement colour; and 
occasionally, they will be partly of one colour, and partly of 
another. 
Tuateras may be kept in a large case somewhat similar to 
that represented at Fig. 3, p. 11, or a run may be made for 
them of any reasonable size, the larger, of course, the better, 
either in a greenhouse or in a sheltered part of a garden. 
A fence of about 22ft. high will be quite sufficient to keep 
them from escaping. If the run be made for them cut 
of doors, they should be provided with a mound of light soil, 
surrounded by rockwork, into which they will burrow; and in 
