299 T'ransactions.— Zoology. 
Arr. XXVIII.—Notes on the Physiology and Anatomy of the Tuatara 
(Sphenodon güntheri. By A. K. Newman, M.B., M.R.C.P. 
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 22nd September, 1877.] 
Various early explorers either saw or heard of the tuatara, and many were 
their wonderful stories. A Mr. French eclipsed all others by describing a 
tuatara ten feet long, which he believed was quite harmless. Polack, whose 
work on New Zealand was published in the year 18388, speaks of it as a large 
and harmless reptile. Thomson, Shortland, Colenso, and others also made 
a few remarks on it. In the year 1842 Dr. Gray called it Hatteria punctata, 
and classed it as a distinct genus of the family Agamide. Three years later 
Professer Owen named it Rhynchocephalus, discovered that its vertebrae were 
amphieclous, and that its skull was unlike that of other lizards. In the 
year 1867 Professor Giinther published a very elaborate monograph on the 
tuatara in the “ Transactions of the Royal Society." Dr. Knox criticized * 
this paper, and very briefly deseribed certain characteristics which he had 
discovered from dissections made some years previously. Professors Huxley 
and Mivart have carefully described the peculiar position and form of the 
hyoid arches. Dr. Buller has written three articles on the natural history 
of this strange d md 
Nomenclature. 
The early travellers in New Zealand thought it was a member of the 
Iguanide. Dr. Gray called it Hatteria punctata; Owen changed it to Rhyn- 
chocephalus; Mivart and Huxley call it Sphenodon; Günther adopts the word 
Hatteria. The Maoris called it ruatara, tuatara, or tuatete. In the ** Leaf 
from the Natural History of New Zealand," the Rev. Richard Taylor says :— 
* Ruatara, a lizard, eighteen inches long (guana), chiefly found on small 
islands. Tuatara, great fringed lizard ( Hatteria punctata), now only found 
_on the off-shore islets, the pigs having eaten them on the main-land. The 
word tuatara signifies ‘having spines.’ Tuatete guana synonymous with 
tuatara.” Mr. Colenso says tuatara and tuatete are not synonymous ; the 
tuatete was not eaten. It was also called kaweu in the Taranaki dialect. 
Three species of Sphenodon, unlike in form and colour, have been 
discovered by Buller :— 
(1.) Sphenodon punctetum, Gray, black, with myriads of light-coloured 
spots. 
(2.) Sphenodon, Buller, not at all black, with much green and yellow. 
(3.) Sphenodon güntheri, Buller, still lighter. 
* ** Trans. N.Z. Inst." IL, 17. 
t “ Trans. N.Z. Inst.," II., 9; IX., 3239; ante Art. XXVII. 
