382 A LAND LIZARD. [chap. xvii. 



It thought the danger was past, It crawled out on the dry 

 rocks, and shuffled away as fast as it could, I several 

 times caught this same lizard, by driving It dov^n to a 

 point, and though possessed of such perfect povi^ers 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 its 

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

 although well acquainted with the eggs of the land-kind — a 

 fact, considering 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, Barrlngton, 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 James 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 



