282 GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO. [CHAP. xvii. 



namely, that when frightened it will not enter the water. Hence 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 tails 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. 

 I threw one several times as far as I could, into a deep pool left by the 

 retiring tide; but 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 edge, but still being under 

 water, tit tried to conceal itself in the tufts of seaweed, or it entered 

 some crevice. As soon as it thought the danger was past, 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 circumstance, 

 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. 



During our visit (in October), I saw extremely few small individuals 

 of this species, and none I should think under a year old. From this 

 circumstance it seems probable that the breeding season had not then 

 commenced. I asked several of the inhabitants if they knew where it 

 laid iits eggs ; they said that they knew nothing of its propagation, 

 although well acquainted with the eggs of the land kind a fact, con- 

 sidering how very common this lizard is, not a little extraordinary. 



We will now turn to the terrestrial species (A. Demarlii), with a 

 round tail, and toes without webs. This lizard, instead of being found 

 like the other on all the islands, is confined to the central part of the 

 archipelago, namely to Albemarle, James, Harrington, and Indefatigable 

 Islands. To the southward, in Charles, Hoop, and Chatham Islands, and 

 to the northward, in Towers, Bindloes, and Abingdon, I neither saw 

 nor heard of any. It would appear as if it had been created in the 

 centre of the archipelago, and thence had been dispersed only to a 

 certain distance. Some of these lizards inhabit the high and damp 

 parts of the islands, but they are much more numerous in the lower 

 and sterile districts near the coast. I cannot give a more forcible 

 proof of their numbers, than by stating that when we were left at 

 Tames Island, we could not for some time find a spot free from their 

 burrows on which to pitch our single tent. Like their brothers the 

 sea-kind, they are ugly animals, of a yellowish-orange beneath, and 

 of a brownish-red colour above ; from their low facial angle they have 

 a singularly stupid appearance. They are, perhaps, of a rather less 

 size than the marine species ; but several of them weighed between 

 ten and fifteen pounds. In their movements they are lazy and half 

 torpid. When not frightened, they slowly crawl along with their tail.s 



