420 Transactiuns. — Zoology. 



spine to the junction of the tail in irregular blotches, alternating with the 

 dark ground colour, and partly covered or hidden by a peculiar disguise of 

 minute fretwork in pale yellow, disposed in irregular patches and crossing 

 the spine at short intervals. The simulation of the dehcate ramifications 

 and microscopic sporules of the lichen is simply perfect. The legs and toes 

 on their outer surface are dark brown dusted and speckled with yellow ; 

 the whole upper aspect having a very lively and pretty effect. The colours 

 of the under parts are entirely different. The chin-scales are almost white, 

 and the lower labial scales are black and white alternately. The sides of 

 the face pale vinous freckled with white and crossed diagonally, from the 

 eye to the angle of the jaw, with an irregular facial streak of black ; throat 

 and all the under parts yellowish- white, thickly fi-eckled and speckled all 

 over with pale brown and yellow, and washed on the throat and sides of the 

 neck with vinous or purplish brown, this colour deepening on the sides of 

 the body, where it blends with the sulphur-yellow fretwork abeady des- 

 cribedjthe latter becoming here more determinate and forming small yellow 

 patches in a dark setting, the whole being prettily varied and mottled with 

 velvety black. The tail again differs from the body, being of a vinous 

 brown, paler on the under surface, and obscurely marbled and streaked with 

 darker brown. Under surface of the feet dull yellowish brown ; claws 

 horn colour. The eyes which are full and lustrous, with prominent over- 

 hanging eyebrows, like fringes, are almost black, presenting, however, on a 

 very close examination, a silvery reticulation with an obscure elliptical 

 pupil. On the mouth being opened, the palate, tongue and lower jaw are 

 found to be of a bright orange-yellow, and the throat dark blue. 



Head, -8 ; body, 2-4 ; tail, 2-5. 



Young: — Uniform colour, a mottled vinous brown, paler on the under 

 parts, and minutely speckled with grey ; not unlike, in appearance, the tail 

 of the adult. Chin yellowish-white ; facial streak indistinct. 



Hah. — Wooded country in the Wanganui District, North Island. 



Note. — Very snappish, opening wide its jaws to bite, curling its body 

 round on being seized, and uttering a peculiar hissing sound hke that of 

 the singing beetle, Mmona hirta. 



As aheady mentioned, the specimen described above was an adult 

 female. It was captured in August, 1879, by Mr. Annabell, who found it 

 clinging to the lichen-covered bark of an ancient totara. 



It gave birth to its young on the 5th December following. 



I observed that the orbits of the eyes and the ear-openings were infested 

 with the pecuhar crimson parasite which attacks the same parts in Naul- 

 tinus pacificus ; and I noticed that two of these insects transferred them- 

 selves, after the death of the parent, to one of the young lizards, attaching 

 themselves to the inner junction of the hind legs. 



