Oct. 19, 1882] 



NA TURE 



609 



Generally the Tuatara lives on the right side and the 

 Petrel on the left. Mr. Reischek says he sometimes 

 found two Petrels inhabiting their side of the chamber 

 but never two Tuataras together. 



He is certain that the Tuataras in most cases excavate 

 the holes as he watched them doing it, and moreover 

 found them in holes only half finished without any birds 

 with them. But there is no doubt that in some instances 

 the Tuataras also inhabit holes dug out by the Petrels. 

 Mr. Reischek likewise gives us some interesting facts 

 about the Tuataras' habits. 



During the daytime these lizards are seldom met with 

 outside their holes, and never far from the entrances. 

 Put as soon as the sun has set, the Tuatara leaves its hole 

 to seek its food, which consists of worms, beetles, etc. 

 It also feeds on the remnants of fishes and crustaceans 

 brought by the Petrel into the chambjr. During the 

 night, a peculiar croaking sound is heard emanating from 



these lizards, not unlike the grunting of a pig when it is 

 tormented. This is the best time to catch the Tuataras. 

 Mr. Reischek believes that the female Sphenodon lays its 

 eggs in February, as in January he found in one of them 

 eight fully developed eggs, and about the same time 

 obtained a young one only eight inches long including 

 the tail. 



So little has been hitherto recorded concerning the 

 habits of the Tuatara in a state of Nature that these facts 

 ascertained by Mr. Reischek and communicated by 

 Professor von Haast to the New Zeiland Institute must 

 be allowed to be of great interest. Although the Tuatara 

 has not unfrequently been brought alive to this country, 

 and there are at the present time two examples of it living 

 in the Zoological Society's Collection, this reptile is 

 already quite extinct upon the main-land of New Zealand 

 and exists only in some of the more remote islets which 

 border its northern shores. 



THE COMET 

 T SEND a few sketches and a brief account of the 

 ■*• comet Cruls. I found the comet at nh. a.m. 

 Septe liber 22, by sweeping the sky near the sun with the 

 10-inch refractor of the Observatory of Palermo. It was 

 x\A an easy object to find; it seems but a point with a 



surrounding nebulosity, and a trace of tail directed to the 

 south-west. 



On the following morning the comet had the form 

 (observed by Prof. Zona and myself) of Fig. 1, and pre- 

 served it until September 27 ; the tail was very splendid, 

 inclined 50 3 to the horizon (that is to say, nearly parallel 

 to the equator), a little convex to the south ; the visible 



length m the glare of dawn and moon was 6°, and then , spectrum of the nucleus, traversed by a large and strong 

 10 ; the breadth at the top was 40', and then i° 18'. | line, that of sodium (D) ; by enlarging the slit of the 

 velfo " U h , u l was 10und and vei T brilliant, with a ■ spectroscope, I saw a globular, monochromatic image of 

 jeouisn light. the nucleus and coma. Besides the line of sodium, many 



ine spectrum was formed of the linear continuous I others were present, but my spectroscope not having a 



