CoLENSO. — On a supposed new Species of Naultinus. 257 



which they also did. The large hzard often puts its tongue out ("licking its 

 lips") when it goes after a fly, especially if a big one; I, am inclined to 

 think that it is hungry then. It is pretty to see the two young lizards 

 going together after the same fly, especially if the fly is crawling above 

 them, within, on the glass roof; to see them walking slowly, side by side, 

 with measured gait, and step by step, hke a pair of hounds in a leash or a 

 couple of miniature fahy-like little creatures, with their heads up, and their 

 httle black eyes ghstening ; at such times, too, when they at last near the 

 fly, they often trample on each other in their eagerness, but whenever they 

 do so, they always take it very quietly, the one underneath neither struggling 

 nor retaUating. 



It has often seemed to me as if it were a natural law, or rule, of these 

 lizards (a thing understood by them), that whenever they trample on, or 

 walk slowly over, each other, or stand, or lie, or even sleep on each other, 

 the under one, or ones, always take it patiently, and rarely ever move at 

 all — not even when the sharp claws of the upper lizard are pressing on the 

 eyes of the one under him : I have often been sm'prised at this. I have 

 never once seen them fight or fall out, or attempt to bite each other, 

 although confined in so small a compass. They often spend hours lying on 

 each other's backs, which is a favomite posture with them, and sometimes 

 sleep, or spend, the whole night thus. I have seen the whole seven thus 

 together in one lump, with, sometimes, the little ones underneath. 



They don't seem very timid nor easily startled to any great degree with 

 noises, or sights, or sounds. I keep them on the table in my sitting-room, at 

 which I take my meals, etc., and I have often thrown down a newspaper by 

 their side, or struck the table with a book pretty strongly, yet they never 

 start ; it is the same when the candles are lit. They appear, too, as if they 

 liked to snugly ensconce themselves in their cage under the koromiko 

 branch, or (the two young ones) stretched out at fuU length on the upper 

 side of the twigs. 



I believe them to be inoffensive, peaceful, and sociable ; and if, as I have 

 already surmised, the fourth one (which was killed) was also a male, then 

 there would have been two couples, at. least, hybernating together in one 

 "hole;" or that "hole" may have been their usual dwelling-place, seeing 

 there were found in it " hts of black stuff" — no doubt their dry and har- 

 dened ffeces, which could not, I think, have been so largely deposited during 

 the short period then passed of their hybernation. An intelhgent friend in 

 the country, who is also an observer of natm-e, has informed me that he 

 has found them, in clearing, " six or seven together, cuddled up under the 

 roots of a flax-bush " (Phormium). 



It is pretty to see them drinking, which they do but seldom ; they lap 

 water much like a cat, but very slowly, as if they were tasting it ; every now 



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