Transit-Expedition Naturalists at Rodriguez. 365 
Since then I have found a small nook in another cave, to which 
it was difficult, from the small size of the entrance, to penetrate. 
Into this also a slit or cleft from the surface had led, but had 
since been obliterated. In this I found, I should say, seven 
“sets” of bones of Solitaire. These were more or less mixed 
up together by the action of water; but they were still, to a 
certain extent, in groups, each group being those of an individual. 
Amongst these I found a perfect skull, with maxilla attached, 
and the three parts of the mandible lying close by, four perfect 
and several injured furcule, and many rings of trachee. 
I propose soon to try my fortune in a small marsh near here, which 
looks as if it might originally have been a lakelet or pond. I am 
induced to do so by the success that my labours met with in a 
similar locality in Mauritius. I have said “near here ;” but this is 
a slip of the pen; I should have said “ near my encampment at 
the caverns.” 
I have found an immense quantity of tortoise-bones, from which 
I shall only make a selection before leaving. I have also exhumed 
a great quantity of bones of smaller birds; but I rather hesitate 
before giving a description of their genera. 
Tam afraid that I cannot send any bones by this mail, as the 
difficulty of transport is so very great. I have every week brought 
back a few bones of Solitaire, but have had hardly any time to put 
even these in gelatine, without which operation they would not 
travel with any degree of safety. 
J am, dear Sir, 
Very obediently yours, 
To Prof. Husley. Henry H. Srater. 
Rodriguez, Nov. 3, 1874. 
My peEAR Srr,—A mail being about to leave the island by 
H.M.S. ‘Shearwater,’ | now send you some account of my pro- 
ceedings up to the present time. 
I have searched for frogs, more especially tree-frogs ; but all the 
natives of the island tell me that there are none; and as I have 
neither heard nor seen them, I conclude that this must be the 
case. With regard to lizards, there is a small house-lizard very 
abundant. It belongs to the genus Peripia, and is very probably 
the same as that found in Mauritius. It is not only found in 
houses, but also in trees, beneath the bark of which it lays its eggs. 
I have been told of a much larger lizard which inhabits a certain 
part of the island, and have myself searched the spot, but have 
been unable to find it. I have also offered a reward for a speci- 
men, but have not yet procured one. 
The same has been the case with regard to another lizard, 
which lives on Frigate Island, a small island lying off the coast of 
Rodriguez. 
