A FLYING VISIT TO DIRK HABTOG, ETC. 301 



In the afternoon I walked to the eastern extremity of the 

 island, which part is more open than elsewhere, with extensive 

 stretches of almost bare limestone rock. Water appears to stand 

 here in places during the rainy season, as I found a good many 

 empty shells of a species of Succinea (scalarina, Pfeiff.), as well 

 as some very young living specimens adhering to the under side 

 of large stones. I was very much pleased to find here the 

 remarkable Scincoid Lizard, Egemia (Silubosaurus) stokesii, 

 Gray, discovered by Capt. Stokes on Eat Island in the southern 

 part of the group ('Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii. p. 145), and 

 exceedingly well figured in the Appendix to that valuable work. 

 The first specimens were obtained by raising a large flat block of 

 limestone, under which several were snugly stowed away ; these 

 were secured without the least trouble, as for a Lizard it is the 

 most sluggish and stupid creature imaginable. It is, however, 

 able to give a pretty severe bite, and holds on to any object which 

 it has seized with its jaws with the tenacity of a bull-dog. The 

 largest examples attain a length of nine or ten inches ; it is of a 

 rather stout and clumsy build, with short legs, and is covered 

 with rather shining keeled scales, which on the tail assume the 

 character of short spines. In colour it is a rich and peculiar 

 blackish olive, thickly mottled with pale yellow spots, which are 

 confluent on the under parts. The habits of this Lizard appear 

 to be somewhat predatory, and in all probability it is of this 

 species that Mr. Gould's collector, Gilbert, speaks in his very 

 interesting notes on the breeding of the Terns, &c, in the 

 Southern Abrolhos (' Handbook, Birds of Australia,' ii. pp. 414, 

 415). He writes as follows : — " By the middle of January the 

 eggs [of Anous stolidus] were nearly ready to hatch, and there 

 would be an overwhelming increase of this species yearly but for 

 the check which nature has provided in the presence of a small 

 Lizard, which is very abundant in their breeding-places, and 

 which finds an easy prey in the young of this Noddy and of 

 Sterna fuliginosa. I am satisfied that not more than one out of 

 every twenty birds hatched ever reaches maturity, or lives long 

 enough to take wing ; besides which great numbers of the old 

 birds are constantly killed. These Lizards do not eat the who'e 

 bird, but merely extract the brain and vertebral marrow ; the 

 remainder is, however, soon cleared off by the Dermestes lardarius, 



