124 SAUEIANS. 



green or dull red colour. I do not recollect having observed this 

 sea- weed in any quantity on the tidal rocks ; and I have reason 

 to believe that it grows at the bottom of the sea, at some little 

 distance from the coast. If such is the case, the object of 

 these animals occasionally going out to sea is explained. The 

 stomach contained nothing but the sea- weed. Mr. Bynoe, how- 

 ever, found a piece of a Crab in one ; but this might have got in 

 accidentally. The intestines were large, as in other herbivorous 

 animals." 



The food of this Lizard, equally with its compressed form of 

 tail, and the certain fact of its having been seen voluntarily swim- 

 ming out at sea, absolutely prove its aquatic habits ; nevertheless, 

 as we are told by Mr. Darwin, " there is in this respect one 

 strange anomaly, namely, that when frightened it will not enter 

 the water. From this cause, it is easy to drive these Lizards down 

 to any little point overhanging the sea, where they will sooner 

 allow a person to catch hold of their tail than jump into the water. 

 They do not seem to have any notion of biting ; but when much 

 frightened they squirt a drop of fluid from each nostril. One day 

 I carried one to a deep pool left by the retiring tide, and threw it^ 

 in several times as far as I was able. It invariably returned in a 

 direct line to the spot where I stood. It swam near the bottom, 

 with a very graceful and rapid movement, and occasionally aided 

 itself over the uneven ground with its feet. As soon as it arrived 

 near the margin, but still being under water, it either tried to 

 conceal itself in the tufts of sea- weed, or it entered some crevice. 

 When it thought the danger was passed, it crawled out on the dry 

 rocks, and shuffled away as quickly as it could. I several times 

 caught this same Lizard by driving it down to a point, and though 

 possessed of such perfect powers of diving and swimming, nothing 

 would induce it to enter the water ; and as often as I threw it in, 

 it returned in the manner above described. Perhaps this singular 

 piece of apparent stupidity may be accounted for by the circum- 

 stance that this reptile has no enemy whatever on shore, whereas 

 at sea it must often fall a prey to the numerous Sharks. Hence, 

 probably urged by a fixed and hereditary instinct that the shore 

 is its place of safety, whatever the emergency may be, it there 

 takes refuge. I asked several of the inhabitants if they knew 



