OUTLINES OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TUATARA. 5 



'^ Our island," writes Mr. Henaglian/ "is densely covered 

 with scrub of various kinds; the soil is <Tood in most places, 

 especially on the ridges ; in the gullies the soil is of a light 

 brown colour, largely composed of oxide of iron. The birds 

 and lizards burrow into this soft soil, and one can often find 

 both living peaceably in the same hole. There are three or 

 four kinds of petrel frequenting the island, and if you were 

 here now, which is their breeding season, you would be sur- 

 prised at the numbers of them, — there is hardly a foot of soil 

 but is undermined with their holes. Insects of various kinds 

 are also well represented, and I think the lizards feed largely 

 on them, especially beetles. I believe they also eat young 

 birds, — in fact, I have seen them do it.^ They, however, live a 

 large part of the year without any food, keeping constantly to 

 their holes. There are three or four kinds of lizards here alto- 

 gether, the Tuatara being the largest; the others are very 

 small. There have never been many lizards' eggs got liere 

 yet, though the Tuataras are very numerous. ^^ 



The breeding season apparently commences in November on 

 Stephens Island, and each female lays about ten (10) eggs."^ 

 On November 1st, 1897, Mr. Henaghan removed ten eggs 

 from an individual which had probably been accidentally 

 crushed by a cow. These eggs, which were forwarded to me, 

 were apparently quite ready to l-iy, but in the one which I 

 opened on their arrival I found no embryo, and the others 

 unfortunately went bad subsequently, instead of continuing 

 their development, as I hoped they might. 



The ground, Mr. Henaghan informs me, is so full of holes 

 that one has to dig ever so many before finding a Tuatara, and 

 then the probability is that it will turn out to be a male, these 

 beinsr far more numerous than the females. The females are 

 much smaller than the males, but otherwise they do not appear 

 to be distinguishable externally.* 



' Letter dated October 28th, 1896. 

 '■' Compare Thomas (1) for a similar observation. 

 ^ Probably up to fifteen sometimes (of. infra). 



* According to Thomas (1) the male has the crests on the neck and back 

 far more strongly developed. 



