TUATARA LIZARD

Hokitika Guardian, 5 April 1921, Page 4

TUATARA LIZARD

The tuatara lizard, a strange creatine which exists only in New Zealand, and which it was thought would soon be-

come extinct, appears to be increasing in numbers on Stephen Island, Cook Strait. The principal lighthouse keeper (Mr I’. Alalthus), in a report to the Minister of Internal affairs (the lion. \Y. Downie Stewart), says: —“I am

quite convinced that the tuatara has increased here during the last four years. In my first summer here, four years ago, I used to stroll about the island in twilight, and during the first, hour of darkness, and take note of the number of lizards I saw. T have been doing tin) same this summer, and the lizards are unmistakably more numerous. 1 think it would he strange if this were not so, for they have been well protected during my time, and relentless war has been waged on their natural enemies. On the night of the 15th November, 1921), I saw a large tuatara making a burrow in some fairly hard clay ground near my house, at the edge of an asphalt path. In the morning she had excavated about six inches, taking the burrow underneath the asphalt, wliieli was about three inches thick. On the following midnight about six inches of her tail showed out of the hole, and in the morning the burrow was empty, and measured fourteen inches. On the following morning there was no hole to lie seen. The entrance was filled with earth patted down, and .smoothed over. I drew (lie earth out, and at the hack of the burrow—which was filled up all the way—l found no fewer than fifteen eggs. So I now have first-hand knowledge of the facts that the tuatara lays her eggs—numbering from seven to fifteen-—about November, and that the eggs hatch probably about the following September or October.”