BurLkn.—On a New Tuaiara. 895 
frequents, that, except when in motion, it is almost impossible for the eye 
to distinguish it. 
2. More advanced state.—Extreme length, 8:25 inches. General colour, 
yellowish-brown, tinged with olive; on the sides of the tail, a rufous tinge ; 
eyelids, inner surface of toes, and dorsal spines, bright olive-yellow, 
especially on the head, and mottled on the body with paler brown; irides, 
darker than in No. 1, with a narrow black pupil (which, however, is 
dilatable, and capable of being reduced to a mere line). 
3. Half-grown example.—Head, dull olive-yellow, spotted with a paler 
colour; ring encircling the eyes, also the entire surface of the toes, bright 
yellow ; upper parts generally dull yellowish-olive, shading to brown on the 
tail, and marked all over with irregular spots and blotches of ashy white, 
which are most conspicuous on the hind-neck and on the limbs ; spines, 
whitish-yellow on the back, darker on the tail; under parts, greyish-white, 
shading into purer grey on the throat, where there are some broken series 
of white scales from the chin downwards; irides, rich brown, finely 
reticulated with golden; the pupil black, with golden edging; claws, 
horn-coloured. The light markings on the upper surface give a variegated 
appearance by which this species is very readily distinguished from Sphenodon 
punctatum. 
It ought to be mentioned that in both species the colours of the skin 
come out with much more distinctness when the body is wet; also that, 
under certain conditions, the animal appears to exercise, to some small 
extent, the chameleon-power of changing its colours, the tints being 
apparently brighter at one time than at another. 
Posrscrer.—My Sphenodon guntheri is probably the “green lizard” 
referred to in the following paragraph which has recently appeared in one 
of the Auckland papers :— 
** A novel exportation has been lately made to the Sydney Museum from 
the East Coast, namely, a dozen of large East Cape Island green lizards, 
which were caught and stuffed by some of the Kawakawa Natives, who 
received payment at the rate of four shillings each for them. These reptiles 
are found nowhere else in New Zealand but in East Cape Island, and the 
Maoris have a tradition amongst them that the lizards were discovered in 
that island on the arrival of the first of the Native race on the East Coast. 
There is no other species of lizard on East Cape Island but the green 
ones, which are the ugliest of all ereeping things, with the exception of 
frogs.” 
It may be mentioned that East Cape Island, or Whangaokena, is only 
about half a mile from the mainland, and immediately off the Cape. It has 
an area of about five acres, and is thickly covered with vegetation. 
