The
Intestines Were Large, As In Other Herbivorous Animals.
The
nature of this lizard's food, as well as the structure of its
tail and feet, and the fact
Of its having been seen voluntarily
swimming out at sea, absolutely prove its aquatic habits;
yet there is in this respect one strange anomaly, namely, that
when frightened it will not enter the water. Hence it is
easy to drive these lizards down to any little point overhanging
the sea, where they will sooner allow a person to catch
hold of their tails than jump into the water. They do not
seem to have any notion of biting; but when much frightened
they squirt a drop of fluid from each nostril. I threw one
several times as far as I could, into a deep pool left by the
retiring tide; but it invariably returned in a direct line to
the spot where I stood. It swam near the bottom, with a
very graceful and rapid movement, and occasionally aided
itself over the uneven ground with its feet. As soon as it
arrived near the edge, but still being under water, it tried to
conceal itself in the tufts of sea-weed, or it entered some
crevice. As soon as it thought 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 southward, 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.
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