ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
101 
YOUNG FORK-TAILED GULL IN THE ZOOLOGICAL PARK 
Creagrns fur cat us (Neboux) 
lizards escaped from their cage on board, and 
two did not appear until twelve days later, 
when we were well north in the Atlantic 
Ocean. This would make their occasional 
transportation from island to island and from 
the mainland on floating tree-trunks a not 
impossible thing. 
More than anything else, I looked forward 
to seeing the great black marine iguanas for 
which the Galapagos, ever since the time of 
Darwin’s visit, has been famous. Miss Cooper 
saw the first one on the first day, and it came 
up to all expectations. As black and rugged 
as the lava boulders themselves, these splendid 
saurians crept about like great prehistoric 
monsters. They showed little or no fear of 
us, and often crawled up closely to see what 
we were about, and, indeed, one moving picture 
which we took shows one of them being 
gently stroked. We captured 
them by stalking and a sudden 
rush, or drove them into crevices 
too small to contain their tail, by 
which we hauled them forth. I 
discovered two very interesting 
things about them—they could 
not be made to bite, and they 
absolutely refused all food in 
captivity. Neither sudden fright 
nor teasing would induce them 
to use their small, but sharp 
teeth, and we came to handle 
them recklessly without fear of 
consequences. These Ambly- 
rhynchus, or short - headed 
lizards as they are called, spent 
their entire lives close to the 
water’s edge. During high tide 
they kept in their burrows or 
sunned themselves on the black 
lava, but when the water began 
to recede they crawled slowly 
down and munched at the tufts 
of exposed sea-weed. They 
clambered about the rocks cling¬ 
ing tightly with their strong 
curved talons, in the face of 
heavy surf, and seldom took to 
the water of their own accord. 
But their long flattened tails 
were well adapted for natatory 
purposes, and their swimming 
and diving ability was equal to 
any emergency. On the last day, 
when we prepared for a big haul 
of Amblyryhnchus, I had a boat 
cage made, a sloping wire screen on a small 
dinghy, which we towed to the beach where they 
abounded. Into this we placed them as fast 
as captured, and not only brought them to New 
York in it, but even carried it to the lawn 
party at the Zoological Park. From Inde¬ 
fatigable Island, one thousand miles out in the 
Pacific, to the Bronx, and for two months later 
these lizards lived and apparently thrived on 
salt water and air. No variety of sea-weed 
or terrestrial vegetable tempted them to break 
their fast. Individuals were killed from time 
to time as material for the big group to be built 
in the American Museum, but after one hun¬ 
dred days of complete abstinence from food 
the remainder appeared as active and as strong 
as when first taken from among their native 
lava. 
HEAD OF GIANT LAND IGUANA. 
Conolophus subcristatus (Gray) 
