158 GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO. 



sessed of such perfect powers of diving and swim- 

 ming, nothing would induce it to enter the water, 

 and as often as I threw it in it returned in the man- 

 ner above described. Perhaps this singular piece 

 of apparent stupidity may be accounted for by the 

 circumstance that this reptile has no enemy what- 

 ever 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 

 shoi-e is its place of safety, whatever the emergen- 

 cy may be, it there takes refuge. 



During Dur visit (in October) I saw extremely 

 few small individuals of this species, and none, I 

 should think, under a year old. From this circum- 

 stance, it seems probable that the breeding season 

 had not then commenced. I asked several of the 

 inhabitants if they knew where it laid its eggs : 

 they said that they knew nothing of its propaga- 

 tion, although well acquainted with the eggs of the 

 land kind — a fact, considering how very common 

 this lizard is, not a little extraordinary. 



AVe will now turn to the teiTestrial 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, Bar- 

 rington, and Indefatigable islands. To the south- 

 ward, in Charles, Hood, and Chatham islands, and 

 to the northward, in Towers, Bindloes, and Abing- 

 don, I neither saw nor heard of any. It would ap- 

 pear 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 in- 

 habit 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 



