A STRANGE REPTILE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 871, 28 July 1910, Page 4

A STRANGE REPTILE.

Mr H. J. Stone, of Woodend, Christchurch, in the Times, gives a detailed description of a reptile which, he says, he became acquainted with in New Zealand about fifty years ago. Mr Stone says the reptile was not a tuatara. “This creature,” he states, “was killed in a patch of manuka ground. He ran out of a hole where Maoris had been digging tor worms, reared himself on his hind legs, and emitted a sort of bark and threw himself forward at a man that disturbed him. He did this several times when he was struck on the back of the head with a manuka stick and killed and brought to the house. He was 27 inches long and y/> inches round. Just behind his forelegs he had little or no tail; it had been broken short off and was growing again, His tail was about three inches or not more than three and a half inches long, about as thick in diameter as it was long, and ran to a sharp point. The tail was a very much lighter colour from where it was broken off. The back ol the body was a dark green colour, perfectly smooth and not a sign of a scale of any sort and no spots on it. It had a large head with rather blunt nose, large mouth which it could open very wide. The teeth were longer than shingle nails and very much thicker at the butt and all slightly curved and locked one into the other. The upper lip was very thick and heavy and seemed to fold over the bottom one. The eyes were large and bulged out from its head. There were great heavy eyebrows or what might be called eyelids, and on top of its head, running three parts of the way down its neck, was a perfect cross. There were massive great forelegs, the shoulder sticking out very prominently. The hind legs did not show so large ; at any rate they did not stand out so much. On top ol the back, just behind the forelegs, was a flange or flu that lay perfectly flat on its back, but, if you stroked it with stick from tail towards head, you could raise it up. It would stand up about an inch in front, dwindling down to nothing just about the hind legs. It had a hole on each side of head just behind the eyes. Eventually my mother buried it and would not tell me where it was buried. Unfortunately Mr Stone has not been able to find any remains of his terrible ugarara. Consequently, its identity is just as puzzling as ever.