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Show 468 GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO. Oct. 1.835. tarily swimming out at sea, absolutely prove its aquatic habits ; yet there is in this respec~ one strange anomaly; namely, that when frightened it :"ill not e~ter the water. From this cause, it is easy to dnve these lizards. down to any little point overhanging the sea, where they will. sooner allow a person to catch hold of their tail t~an jump. mto the water. They do not seem to have any notwn o~ bitmg; but when much frightened they squirt a drop of flmd from each nostril. One day I carried one to a deep pool left by the retiring tide, and threw it in several times as far as I was able. 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 ai?ed i~self over the uneven ground with its feet. As soon as It arnved near the margin, but still being under water, it either 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 drivinO' it down to a point, and though possessed of such b • perfect powers of diving and swimming, nothmg 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 tl1e 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 commenced. I asked several of the inhabitants if they knew where it laid its eggs : they said, that although well acquainted with the eggs of the other kind, they had not the least knowledge of the Oct. 1835. TERRESTRIAL AM.BL'tRHYNCUS. 469 manner in which this species is propagated ;-a fact, considering how common an animal this lizard is, not a little extraordinary. We will now turn to the terrestrial species (Amb. subcristatus of Gray).* This species, differently from the last is confined to the central islands of the Archipelago, namel; to Albemarle, James, Barrington, and Indefatigable. 1'o the southward, in Charles, Hood, and Chatham islands, and to the northward, in Towers, Bindloes, and Abington, I neither saw nor heard of any. It would appear as if thi~ species had been created in the centre of the Archipelago, and thence had been dispersed only to a certain distance. In the central islands they inhabit both the higher and damp, as well as the lower and sterile parts ; but in the latter they are much the most numerous. 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 tent. These lizards, like their brothers the sea-kind, are ugly animals; and from their low facial angle have a singularly stupid appearance. In size perhaps they are a little inferior to the latter, but several of them weighed between ten and fifteen pounds each. The colour of their belly, front legs, and head (excepting the crown which is nearly white), is a dirty yellowish-orange: the back is a brownish-red, which in the younger specimens is darker. In their movements they are lazy and half torpid. When not frightened, they slowly crawl along with their tails and bellies dragging on the ground. They often stop, and doze for a minute with closed eyes, and hind legs spread out on the parched soil. * Briefly characterized by Mr. Gray in the Zoological Miscellany, from. a specimen badly stuffed; from which cause one of its most important characters (the rounded tail, compared to the flattened one of the aquatic kind) was overlooked. Captain FitzRoy has presented some fine specimens of both species to the British Museum. I cannot omit here returning my thanks to Mr. Gray, for the kind manner in which he l1as afforded me every facility as often as I have visited the British Mu.-.eum. |