152 Transactions. 



pohutukawa ; the water is slightly brackish, and very limited in quantity. 

 The Maoris have a tradition that if anyone were to lie down at length and 

 drink from the pool the waters would straightway dry up. An old chief who 

 accompanied us to point out the best fishing grounds charged each member of 

 the party to be careful and dip the water. It was with much pleasure that I 

 listened here to the sweet note of the koromako [Anthornis unelanura). I have 

 heard it occasionally on Whale Island, about five miles from Rurima. The 

 Maoris think that it is the sole survivor of the race and that it flies backwards 

 and forwards between the islands. 



The other islet, Moutoki, lies about half-a-mile to the north*east. It is 

 perhaps 150 yards in length by 50 in breadth. It is on a cone-like hummock 

 rising from its centre tha.t the tuatara {Sphenodon punctatum) is found ; the 

 area of this cone is not more than half an acre, and yet the tuatara exists and 

 has existed for ages in this limited preserve. Tradition says that they were 

 plentiful on Whale Island, but does not account in a satisfactory manner for 

 their extinction. If, as the Maoris aver, their ancestors ate all kinds of 

 lizards, how is it that they are so frightened of them 1 In a few minutes we 

 caught four tuataras (the largest of which I forwarded to Mr. Kirk) ; they 

 were found basking on the rocks and in holes in the loose soil. Whether 

 these holes were the burrows of sea birds or had been scraped by the lizards I 

 could not tell. In one instance we found a tuatara and a young penguin in 

 the same burrow. The Maoris, as a rule, have a perfect horror of lizards, and 

 associate them with death or disaster, but a couple of XJrewera lads, who 

 formed part of my crew, proved superior to superstitious influ^ences, and pulled 

 them out bravely, receiving, however, sundry sharp nips for their temerity. 

 It is believed by some that the tuatara feeds for a portion of the year at least 

 on the eggs of sea birds, but I could never coax one to eat an egg. 

 From an examination of their excreta I am of opinion tliat their food 

 consists of insects, more particularly a shining black beetle, about half-an-inch 

 in length, with a longish neck, small head, and fluted elytra ; it is commonly 

 . found under stones and old wood. On the summit and sides of the cone I 

 noticed the pohutukawa, one or two pittosporads, the common fern, some 

 aspleniums, and a well-known grass ; about the base there is a thick growth 

 of a dwarfed coprosma (C. lucida in all probability). This part of the islet 

 swarms with a small, dark, mottled brown lizard, half-a-dozen of them under 

 every stone or bit of drift-wood. As far as I could discover, they never mix 

 with their larger brethren on the cone. While on this subject, I may mention 

 the existence of a large forest lizard, called by the Maoris kaweau. In 1870 

 an Urewera chief killed one under the loose bark of a dead rata, in the 

 Waimana valley ; he described it to me as being about two feet long, and as 

 thick as a man's wrist ; colour brown, striped longitudinally with dull red. 



