XVII 
TERRES TRIAL AMBL YRHYNCHUS 
4i3 
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 
