XVII 
REPTILES 
407 
and insects have a desert character, and are not more brilliantly 
coloured than those from southern Patagonia ; we may, there¬ 
fore, conclude that the usual gaudy colouring of the intertropical 
productions is not related either to the heat or light of those 
zones, but to some other cause, perhaps to the conditions of 
existence being generally favourable to life. 
We will now turn to the order of reptiles, which gives the 
most striking character to the zoology of these islands. The 
species are not numerous, but the numbers of individuals of 
each species are extraordinarily great. There is one small 
lizard belonging to a South American genus, and two species 
(and probably more) of the Amblyrhynchus—a genus confined 
to the Galapagos Islands. There is one snake which is 
numerous ; it is identical, as I am informed by M. Bibron, with 
the Psammophis Temminckii from Chile. 1 Of sea-turtle I 
believe there is more than one species ; and of tortoises there 
are, as we shall presently show, two or three species or races. 
Of toads and frogs there are none: I was surprised at this, 
considering how well suited for them the temperate and damp 
upper woods appeared to be. It recalled to my mind the 
remark made by Bory St. Vincent, 2 namely, that none of this 
family are found on any of the volcanic islands in the great 
oceans. As far as I can ascertain from various works, this 
seems to hold good throughout the Pacific, and even in the 
large islands of the Sandwich archipelago. Mauritius offers an 
apparent exception, where I saw the Rana Mascariensis in 
abundance : this frog is said now to inhabit the Seychelles, 
Madagascar, and Bourbon ; but on the other hand, Du Bois, 
in his voyage in 1669, states that there were no reptiles in 
Bourbon except tortoises ; and the Offfcier du Roi asserts that 
before 1768 it had been attempted, without success, to 
twenty-three, or probably to twenty-oire. Mr. Sclater thinks that one or two of 
these endemic forms should be ranked rather as varieties than species, which always 
seemed to me probable. 
1 This is stated by Dr. Gunther ( Zoolog ,. Soc. Jan. 24th, 1859) to be a peculiar 
species, not known to inhabit any other country. 
2 Voyage atix Quatre lies d'Afrique. With respect to the Sandwich Islands, see 
Tyerman and Bennett’s Journal, vol. i. p. 434. For Mauritius, see Voyage par un 
OJJcier, etc., Part i. p. 170. There are no frogs in the Canary Islands (Webb et 
Berthelot, Hist. Nat . des lies Canaries ). I saw none at St. Jago in the Cape de 
Verds. There are none at St. Helena. 
