102 
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
GALAPAGOS PENGUIN. SPHENISCUS 
MENDICULUS (SUNDE.) 
Galapagos Penguin which allowed itself to be caught 
in Tagus Cove, Albermarle. 
We found hundreds of these picturesque 
lizards on various islands, but none of the vast 
hordes which were to he seen twenty years 
ago. They have almost no enemies of which 
we know, but they are slowly but certainly 
decreasing. No other living inhabitant of these 
islands seemed so thoroughly a part of its en¬ 
vironment as Amblyrhynchus. In color, in 
rough contour, in the scales of its head stand¬ 
ing up like volcanic cones, in its intimacy 
with lava and surf, it seemed an organic em¬ 
bodiment of the shores of these desert islands. 
Its swimming ability has enabled it to pass 
from island to island to such an extent that 
there are no separate insular forms, and per¬ 
haps its limited environment has also made for 
absence of variation. It has very remark¬ 
able power of orientation, as I proved on 
throwing an individual overboard when we 
were anchored two miles from land. It 
splashed into the water on the nearest land 
off the port bow, although the lava shore could 
hardly have been visible from the lizard’s view¬ 
point, especially in the dim light of late after¬ 
noon. It made five long, deep dives before I 
could recapture it. 
Very different, both in appearance and char¬ 
acter, were the giant land iguanas, Conolophus 
by name, which I found living in burrows in 
sandy uplands. Their haunts, as we studied 
them on Seymour Island, looked much like 
South African veldt—flat, open country, partly 
grassy, with isolated cactus and bursera trees. 
Here, during the heat of the day, every iguana 
lay in the shadow of a favorite bush or cactus 
plant, moving only to follow the narrow 
shadow as it shifted around, and here we 
walked slowly up to them, and after a quick 
race, seized them by the tail. Some were quite 
four feet in length and weighed twenty pounds, 
and in color were brilliant in comparison with 
their sombre marine cousins. The head and 
forelegs were bright cadmium or chrome yel¬ 
low, the neck and throat whitish, and the body 
rich terracotta, variegated with black. To see 
these great parti-colored creatures awkwardly 
walking about beneath the spiny cactus over 
soft, red, volcanic mud with a background of 
rugged, bare craters, was to see the world in 
imagination, as much of it must have been mil¬ 
lions of years before mankind began to possess 
and destroy. 
By lucky accident of a Conolophus seizing 
one of our shoes and biting severely, we were 
probably saved from a more serious attack, 
for, unlike the lizards of the sea coast, these 
proved to be irritable and fierce and willing 
to do their best to win freedom with teeth as 
well as claws. Their fury spent, philosophy 
ruled, and they accepted what fate offered 
MISS COOPER AND OUR BLACK SPIDER 
MONKEY “SINDBAD" 
