XVII TERRESTRIAL AMBLYRHYNCHUS 413 



the danger was past, it crawled out on the dry rocks, and 

 shuffled away as quickly as it could. I several times caught 

 this same lizard, by driving it down to a point, and though 

 possessed of such perfect powers of diving and swimming, 

 nothing would induce it to enter the water ; and as often as I 

 threw it in, it returned in the manner above described. Perhaps 

 this singular piece of apparent stupidity may be accounted for 

 by the circumstance that this reptile has no enemy whatever 

 on shore, whereas at sea it must often fall a prey to the 

 numerous sharks. Hence, probably, urged by a fixed and 

 hereditary instinct that the shore is its place of safety, whatever 

 the emergency may be, it there takes refuge. 



During our visit (in October) I saw extremely few small 

 individuals of this species, and none I should think under a 

 year old. From this circumstance it seems probable that the 

 breeding season had not then commenced. I asked several of 

 the inhabitants if they knew where it laid its eggs ; they said 

 that they knew nothing of its propagation, although well 

 acquainted with the eggs of the land kind — a fact, considering 

 how very common this lizard is, not a little extraordinary. 



We will now turn to the terrestrial species (A, Demarlii), 

 with a round tail, and toes without webs. This lizard, instead 

 of being found like the other on all the islands, is confined to 

 the central part of the archipelago, namely, to Albemarle, 

 James, Barrington, and Indefatigable Islands. To the south- 

 ward, in Charles, Hood, and Chatham Islands, and to the 

 northward, in Towers, Bindloes, and Abingdon, I neither saw 

 nor heard of any. It would appear as if it had been created 

 in the centre of the archipelago, and thence had been dispersed 

 only to a certain distance. Some of these lizards inhabit the 

 high and damp parts of the islands, but they are much more 

 numerous in the lower and sterile districts near the coast. I 

 cannot give a more forcible proof of their numbers, than by 

 stating that when we were left at James Island, we could not 

 for some time find a spot free from their burrows on which to 

 pitch our single tent. Like their brothers the sea- kind, they 

 are ugly animals, of a yellowish orange beneath, and of a 

 brownish -red colour above : from their low facial angle they 

 have a singularly stupid appearance. They are, perhaps, of a 

 rather less size than the marine species ; but several of them 



