BuLLER.— On a New T'uatara. 319 
For many years after the discovery of the Sphenodon, by Dr. Dieffenbach, 
it was almost unknown in European Museums, although a few more speci- 
mens were forwarded to the National Collection by Dr. Knox and Captain 
Drury; and even as late as 1867, Dr. Günther writes :—“ Evidently re- 
stricted in its distribution, exposed to easy capture by its sluggish habits, 
esteemed as food by the natives, pursued by pigs, it is one of the rarest 
objects in zoological and anatomical collections, and may one day be 
enumerated among the forms of animal life which had become extinct 
within the memory of man." 
In December, 1851, Dr. Thomson, of the 58th Regiment, and a party 
of officers, visited the Island of Karewa, in the Bay of Plenty, and, in the 
course of an hour, collected nearly forty of these lizards of all sizes, the 
largest being about two feet in length. The island was swarming with the 
little scaly lizard called Mokomoko (Tiliqua zealandica ), and a number 
of these also were collected. An interesting account of this expedition 
appeared in the New Zealander newspaper at the time, and it was stated 
therein that, at the end of the return voyage, on opening the box contain- 
ing the captives, it was found that they had eaten up all the Mokomokos, 
leaving nothing but the horny tips of their tails !" 
Few of these specimens appear to have been preserved, for the Sphenodon 
continued to be an extreme rarity in English collections, and down to 1870 
there was not, I believe, a single example in any American or Continental 
museum. 
Since that date, however, attention has been directed to the island 
home of the Tuatara, and a considerable number of specimens have been 
from time to time secured and distributed among the loeal museums or sent 
to England. 
One obtained by Captain Mair on the Rurima Rocks and sent home by 
Sir George Grey is, I believe, still living in the Zoological Society's Gar- 
dens, where I saw it occupying the same cage, in perfect amity, with some 
Australian guanas in the new reptile house. 
A pair which I received from Captain Mair in 1869 were noticed in a 
communication to this Society on the 22nd October, 1870.* These were in 
my possession for many months, but I could never induce them to eat. 
They were sluggish in their movements, and, when molested, uttered a low, 
eroaking note. The male measured thirteen and a half inches, and the 
female sixteen inches. They were obtained, like the rest, from Karewa 
Island, and my correspondent sent the following notes with them :—“ It 
was just daylight when we reached the island, and the Titi and other birds 
* «Trans. N. Z. Inst.," Vol. HL, p. 9. 
