FOND OF MUSIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 226, 23 September 1936, Page 12

FOND OF MUSIC.

TUATARA LIZARDS. « . ONE AT WELLINGTON ZOO. TWENTY YEARS' "RESIDENT." Probitbly mcst interesting, as well as most tj'pical of New Zealand, of all exhibits at the Wellington Zoo, the tuatara lizard is at the same time least known to visitors. . Indeed, many comeaway from Newtown wholly unaware of the reptile's presence there. Unostentatiously accommodated in a glass case east of the bear-pits, the tuatara, aloof and sedentary, fails somehow to attract

I a public intrigued by the vapid antics ( of more friendly and understandable , members of the animal kingdom. After : all (says "The Dominion"), the tuatara does nothing; but he does so more thoroughly Hlian any other creature. Oblivious of time, he is content to pass an hour, or a day, or a week, as motionless and unblinking as a graven image. This tuatara has lived at Newtown for more than 20 years. He was originally presented by the New Zealand Government, but beyond that his origins are obscure. He must have been caught long ago 011 one of those spray-drenched outlying islands of the coast, Moko Hinau, Little Barrier, Karewa, Purima, Motiti, East Cape Island, Stephen Island, The Brothers, or The Poor Knights. For nowhere else in the world are tuataras found. These isles are the sole habitat of his kind. ' Solitary and morose, he .munches a monotonous diet of chopped raw meat. He is an irregular feeder, now eating voraciously daily, now fasting for a month at a time. His age is unknown. Tuataras live to a great age; Jenny, of the Dunedin museum, died at the age of 70, while another tuatara is stated to have outlived three generations of Maoris. a • As the last survivor or an order of reptiles otherwise extinct to-day, the tuatara is of great scientific interest. His technical name is Sphenodon. One of his peculiarities is that lie possesses in greater measure than any other living thing the prehistoric pineal eye in the centre of the forehead, attribute of the mythical cyclops, and of certain prehistoric monsters. Even in the tuatara this third eye i 3 no more than a vestige, but it reminds one that in certain of his ancestors it was a regular working organ.

The Newtown tuatara may seem to the visitor unsociable and dull, but in the wild state ho is evidently companionable enough. He seldom lives alone, but boards in the burrow of one of the dovepetrels that nest in thousands on those lonely crags.* Neither bird nor reptile appears in any way embarrassed by this quaint partnership. One thing they have in common, both lay eggs; but those of the reptile take nearly 11 months to hatch. Needless to say, he does not incubate them himself by brooding over them, but buries them in the sandy turf. These odd reptiles are said to be strangely fond of music, and will leave their burrows for the lure of gramophone or musical instrument. In Maori legend; like all lizards, they were regarded with dread, as emissaries of Whiro, the evil spirit of death and disaster in native mythology. Yet they had much in common with the Maori of old, both being given to warfare with their own kind, and to devouring the bodies of the slain. If at Newtown the tuatara seems drab ana uninspiring, picture him in his native haunts, looking out from the mouth of the dove-petrel's burrow at surf breaking on the island crags .against a background of blue sea and the rugged panorama of the coast. He will fit into the scene as an integral part of the landscape, something older than mankind, ulniffected by the passage of time.