622 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
hears it. The natives imagine that all diseases are caused 
by this lizard crawling down their throats, when they are 
asleep. The male is perfectly green ; the female has a 
longitudinal line of white spots running down the lower 
part of each side. N. Pcicificus, N. Punctatus mokopapa, 
has suckers attached to its feet. Fam. Agamidce, Hatteria 
Punctata. 
There are several other kinds of lizards, one is beautifully 
spotted and of a black velvet color ; another is of a flesh color 
under the neck and belly, and dark brown on the back.* 
Fam. Hydrides, ( pelamys bicolor ), found from eighteen to 
twenty-four inches long, of a dirty green and white color. 
Fam. Batrachice , (ranee) . — Until lately the frog was not 
supposed to be in New Zealand, although Polack stated 
he could not sleep for the noise of their croaking, no other 
traveller has met with such annoyance, although many have 
traversed the country far more frequently and entirely than 
he ever did, without even seeing anything of them. The 
discovery of the frog in New Zealand was reserved for the 
gold-diggers at Coromandel Harbour, where, in 1852, three 
small ones were found in their pits ; and afterwards, I heard 
that one had occasionally been turned up by the plough in 
the vicinity of Auckland. With these exceptions, I have not 
seen any, or heard of others seeing them ; they must be 
extremely rare, and had not I found from the natives that 
there is a large frog on the island of Mana, I should have 
been inclined to think those at Coromandel had been acci- 
dentally imported from Sydney. The natives describe a large 
frog, which they call moko mokai , a maru te ware aitu , as 
having once been very abundant on that island ; they say it 
was as large as a small pullet, and in the tadpole state more 
than a foot long ; they also affirmed there was a smaller one 
found in the same locality ; the existence of the bull-frog at 
present only rests on their report. Ranapipiens. 
* Black lizards, with hair or down on them, and about four feet long, are 
said to abound in the green stone lake. A man named Hawkins, who lived in 
that part of the island for many years, is said to have kept one of these lizards, 
w hich he fastened with a dog chain ; they are amphibious. 
