8 ARTHUR DENDY. 



places oil the island nearly every day since the first of January, 

 and were heginning to give up all hope of obtaining any more 

 eggs for this season, when it occurred to him to try and find 

 out where the Tuataras laid their eggs before any clearings 

 were made for lighthouse purposes. *' Remember/^ writes 

 Mr. Henaghan, " that all the eggs found previously were got 

 on the clearings made for tracks, &c. In order to solve this 

 problem I went down a steep cliff about 400 feet, or in other 

 words about 200 feet above the sea. There is no vegetation 

 in this place, and to-day I started grubbing out some loose 

 earth; to my joyful surprise I found some eggs, good ones. 

 There was plenty of evidence that they used to lay here in 

 years gone by, for there were a lot of old egg-shells in the soil. 

 This place was so steep that it was with difficulty I could keep 

 my footing while working. Now I intend to keep these eggs 

 as you proposed in a previous letter ; I have put them in a hole 

 in the ground close to my house, and in as favourable a situa- 

 tion for their development as there is in the island. I will be 

 able to examine them occasionally, and at the same time send 

 you a few every time there is a chance." 



I may conclude these quotations from my correspondent's 

 interesting letters with the following important note : — '' On 

 the 12th November one of my assistants excavated a track on 

 the side of a slope leading down to a sheep-pen. In making 

 this track he evidently cut into a lizard's nest, but did not 

 notice it at the time. One day about the middle of January, 

 when we were carrying a sheep up this track to be slaughtered, 

 one of my children noticed an egg sticking out at the side of 

 the cuttinsr. On examination it was seen that a nest had been 

 there. Some of the eggs, those that were farthest in, were 

 empty, showing that the young lizards had escaped, while the 

 eggs that were exposed to the sun had the skeletons in them. 

 It is therefore quite plain that the eggs take about twelve (12) 

 months to develop, and it is with the object of proving this 

 that I send you the samples, hoping they may be useful." 



One of the most important facts brought out by the valuable 

 observations of Mr. Henaghan, above quoted is that the 



