224 Transactions.—Zoology. 
chians and the Sphenodon, viz., a longitudinal axial perforation of the 
vertebrg. ; 
Professor Seeley, in a series of most elaborate essays, compares the 
bones of many living and extinct reptiles with each other. He finds that 
** The abdominal ribs of Hatteria are like those of Plesiosaurus, and in one 
species (for two species seem to me to be figured by Dr. Günther) the 
medium V-shaped bone is overlapped by a splice from a bone external to it. 
In another species this is replaced by a joint, and the external piece has a 
squamous expansion on the middle of its anterior and posterior margin, 
unlike anything seen in Plesiosaurus. But, as in Plesiosaurus, other bones 
are introduced between these elements, so as to make the abdominal ribs 
nearly twice as many as the costal ribs."* He compares Jehthyosaurus and 
Sphenodon thus :—‘* The apparatus of infracostal ribs seems capable of 
being moved away with equal entirety in both groups, owing to the union 
of some of the elements by overlap." Günther thinks it most like the 
Fthynchosaurus of the new red sandstone of Shropshire. 
Habitat, 
Until the last few years tuataras abounded in certain parts of the South 
Island, especially on the banks of the Waimakariri river. About thirty 
years ago four were caught on Mount Victoria, near Wellington ; one on 
Somes Island in Wellington harbour; and two by Mr. Mason, in the 
Hutt Valley; and in 1864 several were caught at Makara. They frequent 
the sandy banks of rivers, and hide beneath fallen trees. They abound on 
the Rurima Rocks, and on other islets in or near the Bay of Plenty, on 
Motiti, and East Cape Island. Many were found on the Brothers Rocks in 
Cook Strait during the recent erection of the lighthouse, but are now almost, 
if not quite, exterminated by curiosity-hunters. On the large islands none 
exist. Bush fires, wild pigs, dogs and cats, reptile-eating Maori tribes, and 
the advance of civilization have swept away all of these strange creatures, 
except the few which infest the tops of inaccessible rocky islets. Only one - 
of the islets forming the Brothers group, in Cook Strait, was inhabited by 
them: this one was covered with loose sand and shingle, in which the 
tuatara burrowed holes. The other two uninhabited islets are merely bare 
hard rocks, affording neither food nor shelter. 
Habits. 
Tuataras grow very slowly; young specimens have apparently not 
increased in size during a whole year. A full-grown specimen must be 
. many years old. One is known to have lived out two generations of men. 
Tuataras, like most reptiles, are very sluggish in their habits. They sleep 
during the greater part of the day, eoming out of their holes at night for 
v ...* Jour. Linn, Soc., XIL, 897. © t Loc, cit., 309, 
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