WARD’S NATURAL SCIENCE BULLETIN. 
15 
between the rocks, without trying to rise, as, 
indeed, it would have been hard for him to do 
so. After a long time he found a first Tuatara, 
then another, then another still. They were 
hidden under the edges of the rocks, sometimes 
in the natural space, sometimes in a small bur- 
row like a rat-hole. Here he either reached them 
by hand or snared them with a bit of twine. 
This the sluggish animal permitted, rarely trying 
very hard to escape and never offering to bite. 
Only if taken by the tail it would frequently 
shake off that member, leaving it in the aggres- 
sor’s hand, and creep out of reach under the 
rock. We spent the entire day on the islet, a 
part of us burrowing under the brush and a part 
alternating with rest. A long, busy day, during 
which we hardly stopped to eat, at length came 
to a close, and we took the boat and went back 
to the cutter. Then we transferred our Tuataras 
from the collecting bag to a can of alcohol. 
There were 14 of them, each from 14 to lb inches 
in length. 
“The accompanying illustration gives a far 
better idea of the animal’s personal appearance 
than could be conveyed by a lengthened descrip- 
tion. The most noticeable feature is the tail, 
which is compressed and crested, having in its 
shape a suggestion of the alligator. The general 
color is a dull olive green, whitish below, and 
plentifully sprinkled with yellowish spots. In 
some specimens the tail, while of the same length 
and general shape as that of the others, had a 
peculiar appearance, which induced its examina- 
tion. The scales, which on the under side of the 
tail are ordinarily arranged in regular cross 
bands, were, to within a short distance of the 
body, crowded together indiscriminately, and 
with no uniformity of pattern. Further, these 
tails possess no vertebrae, but in their place a 
flattened, jointless strip of cartilage. Like the 
geckos the Hattera is one of those lizards in 
which the tail when lost by violence is repro- 
duced, but as above noted, minus its vertebrae. 
Many individuals had thus suffered, doubtless 
from combats during the breeding season. 
“ The next morning we returned to the islet and 
sought for the entire day, with a smaller yet still 
a satisfactory result. On the third day we found 
but a single specimen; so we returned early to 
our cutter, and catching a fair wind at sundown, 
we sailed all night back toward Tauranga, and 
in the morning were at the high rocky island of 
Karewa, where with some difficulty we made a 
landing with the dinghy, while the cutter tacked 
off and on waiting for us. On this island we saw 
but three Tuataras, all of which we secured. 
They averaged larger than those from the Ru 
Rimas. Then we sailed some thirty miles up 
the coast to Mayor Island, one side of which had 
— reaching from sea-level to summit — a talus of 
large blocks and fragments of pure, black, shining 
obsidian. Of this we took in a few hundred 
weight to break into cabinet specimens, and then 
sailed back to Tauranga, whence we were in all 
just a week absent upon our excursion. 
“ But we must not dismiss our Hatteria without 
noting a few peculiarities of its framework, in 
which in fact its strangeness consists. The ver- 
tebrae are bi-concave, a fish-like feature which 
obtained in the Ichthyosaurus of old geologic 
times, but, the geckos excepted, is not found in 
modern reptiles. Fifteen of the twenty-two ribs 
are provided w'ith uncinate processes as in birds 
and crocodilia. The sternal and vertebral ribs 
are united by the interposition of a third segment 
— the intermediate rib — as in many other rep- 
tiles,* and there is a very peculiar system of 
abdominal bones (see cut), which are supposed 
by Dr. Gunther to assist the animal in creeping 
under low rocks where it cannot use its feet.f 
The skull is highly osseous, and built up with 
great firmness of its parts. The infra-temporal 
arcade is completed by bone in this, but in no 
other recent lizard. 
Hatteria is an acrodont in the strictest mean- 
ing of the term, the teeth being so intimately 
auchylosed with the edge of the jaws as to 
* This arrangement is found among mammals in the 
sloths and the monotremes. 
+ These “ abdominal ribs” repeat acharacter found 
in Crocodile. On many accounts Hatteria seems more 
nearly related to these huge reptiles than to the 
Geckos, which it resembles in external appearance. 
RIB OF HATTERIA. 
r. rib ; u. p. uncinate 
u. 
process; i.r. 
mediate rib 
sternal rib. 
inter- 
st. r. 
appear to be merely project- 
ing portions of them, while 
the edges of the maxillae are 
like the teeth, highly polish- 
ed, and in old individuals, 
whose teeth are worn down, 
perform the same functions. 
There is in Hatteria a longi- 
tudinal series of teeth upon 
either palatine bone, running 
parallel with those upon the 
maxilla, and the teeth of the 
lower jaw fit into the deep 
groove which lies between the 
maxillary and palatine teeth, 
and as they come together in 
mastication, keep each other sharp by mutual 
attrition. Dr. Gunther claims for this New 
Zealand lizard, which differs in some important 
structural respects from every other known sau- 
rian, and it is in its osteology the most bird-like 
of existing reptiles, a higher rank than that of a 
family, and makes it the type of a distinct order 
of reptilia, equal in value to the ophidians and 
crocodilians. He points out that the crocodiles 
are removed from the lizards, into a distinct 
order, on the ground of osteological peculiarities 
as well as on account of the higher organization 
of their soft parts, and that in Hatteria the modi- 
fications of the lacertine skeleton extend to the 
same parts. So he assigns it to the position of 
Order III of reptiles, under the name of Rhyn- 
cocephalina. As such let us give the quaint 
stranger a place in our Rochester collections and 
catalogues.” H. A. W. 
WANTED. 
Enhydra marina (Sea Otter), Skins. 
Lynx fasciatus , “ 
Vespertilio carolinensis (Brown Bat), “ 
Arvicola xanthigenosus, ‘ ‘ 
Arvicola rufescens, ‘ * 
Neotoma florida rta, “ 
Sigmodon hispidus, “ 
Reithrodon humilis, “ 
Perognathus pencillatus, ‘ ‘ 
Ovibos moschatus (Musk Ox), “ 
Stemmatopus cristatus (Hooded Seal), “ 
Larus marinus, “ 
Puflinus major, “ 
Ceratorhina monocerata, “ 
Synthliboriiamphus antiquus , “ 
Bison Americaaus ( Buffalo), large male skeletons. 
Ceomys bursarius (Pouched Gopher), “ 
Cynomys ludovicianus (Prairie Dog), “ 
Eggs of North American birds as follows 
{numbers according to Cones' Check List ) — 7, 55, 
57, 71, 93, 177, 180a, 215a, 217, 228a, 241, 245, 
264, 265, 336, 354, 400, 409, 461, 484, 499, 505, 506, 
526, 546, 582, 611, and any species not in our 
catalogue. 
Well preserved, choice specimens of American 
Minerals and Fossils. Also, of American (In- 
dian and “Mound Builders”) relics, Axes, 
Hatches, Pipes, Pottery, etc., etc. 
We want only good typical specimens, and 
would request that in every case persons write 
us in regard to the specimens before sending 
them. If specimens are sent “on approval” 
without first consulting us, the freight on them 
must be prepaid. 
Foreign Correspondents. 
To our foreign readers we would say that we 
desire to secure correspondents in all parts of the 
world to procure for us material in the various 
departments of Natural History, and we should 
be glad to hear from any one who may be able 
to furnish specimens. We have not space to 
give a list of our foreign desiderata , but to any 
one who may wish to supply material we will 
send a list of our desiderata from his region. 
Amateur Photography. 
To make a rapid and accurate record of any- 
thing in these days of high pressure, has become 
a necessity. The printing press of to-day does 
ten thousand fold more work than that of Frank- 
lin’s time. In almost every office the click of the 
type-writer is heard; we have automatic tele- 
graph and fire alarms; an endless number of 
instruments registering wfitli marvellous accuracy 
the constant meteorological changes; league after 
league of sea is measured with the recording log; 
while its hitherto unmeasured depths make their 
own record upon the recording plummet. 
No wonder then that amateurs hail with de- 
light the advent of Dry Plate, and the accurate 
apparatus of to-day, which when contrasted with 
the old wet process, with its hosts of discomforts 
and actual dangers, make photography seem 
like a new art. 
We noticed in our last Bulletin a new appa- 
ratus designed especially for amateurs, and pre- 
dicted then a great future for it, on account of its 
extreme compactness and lightness — the entire 
apparatus weighing but two pounds — together 
with the fact that complete accessories, chemicals, 
plates, and instructions accompany each instru- 
ment, enabling any person of common intelli- 
gence to master the art of photography. 
At the exhibition of scientific apparatus made 
before the “American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science,” at Cincinnati, this appa- 
ratus and the work produced by its use elicited 
universal admiration — and having used the in- 
strument ourselves under a variety of conditions 
we are happy to endorse Professoi Lattimore’s 
statements regarding them, when he says: 
“Walker’s Pocket Camera and its accessories 
constitute a marvel of mechanical ingenuity. It 
reduces a whole photographic outfit to the very 
minimum of bulk. Every part, down to the 
most hidden detail, shows the highest skill of 
contrivance and the most thorough workman- 
ship. 
It so happily overcomes the difficulty of ma- 
nipulation that any careful person, who will 
faithfully follow the directions, although without 
previous experience, may be satisfactorily suc- 
cessful from the very start.” 
Sample photograph and catalogue will be sent 
by Mr. Walker upon receipt of communication 
enclosing ten cents, addressed to Box F. 200, 
Rochester, N. Y. 
BULLETIN 
OF THE 
NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 
A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY, 
SEVENTH YEAR OF PUBLICATION. 
Though intended primarily as a medium of 
communication between working ornithologists, 
and consequently maintaining a high technical 
character, this Bulletin aims to be entertaining as 
well as instructive, and contains a fair portion 
of sufficiently popular matter to suit all those who 
are interested in birds. It is mainly devoted to 
the Ornithology of North America. Being a 
general 
MAGAZINE OF ORNITHOLOGY, 
its review department promptly gives critical 
notes, not only of all American works and papers, 
but of the more important publications relating 
to Ornithology at large ;_witlr its department of 
General Notes, is rich in the experiences of the 
working ornithologists of this country. 
Mr. J. A. Allen, Editor. 
Assisted by Prof, S. F. Baird and Dr. Elli- 
ott Cones. 
Terms. — $2.00 a year, including postage; 
strictly in advance. Back volumes at the same 
price. _ Single numbers 50 cents. Remittances 
by mail at the risk of the sender, unless sent by 
postal order, or draft on Boston or New York. 
Address Charles F. Baciielder, Cambridge, 
Mass. 
Foreign subscribers may obtain the Bulletin 
of J. Van Voorst & Co., Paternoster Row, 
London. 
