THE TUATARA 381 



except on a few islets lying off the coast: The Chickens and the 

 Little Barrier, in Hauraki Gnlf ; Karewa Island and the Rurima 

 rocks, in the Bay of Plenty; IMotiti and East Cape Island; and 

 The Brothers and Stephen Island, in Cook Strait. 



Dr. Dieffenbach, writing in 1843, says that he had been 

 apprised of the existence of a large lizard, which the natives 

 called tuatara, or Ngarara, as a general name, and of which they 

 were much afraid. But although he looked for it at the places 



( Voy. Kyrbita and Trn-or.) 



Tuatara. 



where it was said to be found, and offered great rewards for a 

 specimen, it was only a few days before his departure that he 

 obtained one, which had been caught at a small rocky islet called 

 Karewa. about two miles from the coast in the Bay of Plenty. 



Tlie tuataras live in holes in the ground, sometimes in company 

 with a petrel of some kind, and can be got out only by digging. 

 Their food is principally beetles, grasshoppers, and spiders, but 

 they will eat any small animal so long as it is alive. Captain 

 j\lair states that he caught some tuataras on the Rurima rocks. 

 At the same time he put a number of small lizards into a box with 

 them. There was at first about twenty of them. He observed 

 that they diminished in number every day, till at last only six 



