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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