260 Transactions. — Zoology. 



8 p.m. it had not moved, so also it was at 11 p.m., when I went to bed, 

 and when I came down the next morning it was still in exactly the same 

 strange position ; I now thought it could not easily get out, so I lifted the 

 glass to help it, but the moment I did so it scuttled away very fast. 



They always take a most peculiar attitude to void their faeces, which, 

 however, they do not perform frequently. I always know when they are 

 about to do so (if on the look-out), for with young and old their preparation 

 is pretty much alike. They first lift up their tails in a semi-curvature 

 towards their backs, then they lift their hind-feet from the floor, and so 

 slowly void their one pellet ; which done they gently lower then- hind-feet, 

 and then their tail, and move away. On one occasion I saw. the adult 

 male lizard, which was quietly at ease among the koromiko twigs, leave its 

 lair and climb up into the water-trough ; at first I thought it was going to 

 diink, or to bathe in the water, but I was agreeably surprised in noting its 

 actions ; having got into the salt-cellar, it placed its feet on both sides, 

 cocked-up its big tail, and voided its pellet into the water ! That over, it 

 leism-ely descended to its former resting-place. In their voiding the faecal 

 pellet the anus of the animal is produced much more than would be sup- 

 posed. Their dung is of a long oval shape 4-5 hues long, and not unlike 

 that of a sheep ; it is black in colour, but always with a white adjunct (uric 

 acid), somewhat resembling that of a fowl, which portion always appears 

 first; they void rather slowly. Sometimes, especially after eating "blue- 

 bottle flies," the portions of the fly in rather coarse fragments are very 

 plain in the deposit. 



It was highly curious to note what I believed to be the amorous manner 

 of the adult male toward the female lizards. This happened early m the 

 summer, but the loss of the two females (supra) of course put a stop to it. 

 He would chase the female in a pecuhar strutting manner round and round 

 their cage, moving his head horizontally very regularly and constantly with 

 a jerk from right to left, and left to right, until he should lay hold of her, 

 which he mvariably did by the loose skin on the nape of the neck, when, 

 having so caught her, he was still — sometimes for half-an-hour or more — 

 holding qviietly on all the time, but on her trying to get loose, which she 

 easily did, the same kind of pm'suit would follow, to be ended in a similar 

 way. As the summer advanced his teasing manner became so constant, and 

 evidently to the annoyance of the two females — giving them all no rest in 

 then- little cage — that I had thoughts of removmg him into another, which 

 I suppose I should have done had the two females not died. 



Although I have often handled and stroked them, only on one occasion 

 did one of them bite me ; this was the adult male, and I had teased him a 

 bit, — but his bite was but a gentle pinch, scarcely perceptible ! I have a 



