10 



obtained on the small island of Karewa, in the Bay of Plenty, where this large 

 lizard is still very plentiful, althoxigh it is well-nigh extinct on the mainland. 

 Mr. Gilbert Mair, from whom I received them, furnished the following 

 interesting notes : — " It was just daylight when we reached the island, and 

 the Titis and other birds poured out of their nests nndergTOund in thousands. 

 The whole place is completely honeycombed with their burrows, and you cannot 

 move two steps without sinking to the knees in them. The tuataras are very 

 plentiful. They live in holes under the big rocks, and can be only got at by 

 digging. I suspect that, during a part of the year at least, they subsist largely 

 on birds' eggs." 



Mr. Sclater, the Secretary of the Zoological Society, in an article con- 

 tributed to Nature (June 23, 1870), notices the acqiiisition, by purchase, of a 

 living example of this remarkable lizard, and refers to it as the only one that 

 had reached England alive since the publication of Dr. Giinther's admirable 

 paper in the Philosojyhiccd Transactions (Part ii., 1867). This is evidently a 

 mistake ; for in the early pai-t of last year, Dr. Hector forwarded, under care 

 of Sir George Grey, a pair of live tuataras (male and female), one of which 

 reached the Zoological Gardens in safety, and was afterwards figured in the 

 Illustrated London News. These specimens were obtained by Mr. Gilbert 

 Mair, together with those sent to me, on the Island of Karewa, above 

 referred to, which he describes as distant about nine miles from Tauranga, 

 abont two acres in extent, and composed of large masses of scoria loosely 

 jumbled together. 



The Bay of Plenty natives assert that those found on the Eurima Rocks 

 are of a different kind ; and Mr. Mair adds, of his own knowledge, that those 

 inhabiting East Cape Islet, about fifty miles to the eastward of Opotiki, are of 

 a "bright green colour." 



This reptile, which dififers in some important structural characters from 

 every other known saurian, and in its osteology is the most hird-like of extant 

 lizards, was first described and figured by Di'. Gray under the name of Hatteria 

 2ninctata, and has been generally designated so till lately, when (as Mr. Sclater 

 informs us) " it was most fortunately discovered, that the generic term of 

 Sphenodon had been previously applied to a specimen of its skull in the 

 Museum of the College of Sui'geons." This term has accordingly been substi- 

 tuted for Hatteria, which Mr. Sclater denounces as "vile and barbai'ous." 



All the New Zealand genera of lizards have been re-named by Di. L. J. 

 Fitzinger, of Vienna, but I have thought it best to adhere to Gray's nomen- 

 clature. To prevent further confusion, however, I will give here the generic 

 equivalents, viz.: — EulanijDus, Yiiz.^ Hinulia, Gray; Lampropliolis, Fitz.=: 

 Mocoa, Gray; Hoplodactylus, Y\tz.-=Naultinus, Gray. I ought also to mention 

 that I have omitted from my list, a species of "house-gecko," described by 



