Nor hag the vegetable life on the island of Karewa changed greatly from that to which Sphenedon was accustomed. The; Gallipoli, great ferns and vines and thorny Fgypt, Iraq, etc. scrub and ancient kinds of rocks are still there. But on the larger islands men came, and later other mammals, and with their coming began Sphenedon's exit.
phenedon is from nine to twelve inches Jong. The female lays her eggs in the sand and the male fertilises them. The sun does the rest, but it takes a year or more to hatch them. One egg at a time, and perhaps a dozen in a life-time ig the egg-laying rate of Sphenedon. The little reptiles are very sluggish and do nothing to resist eir capture. If takem by the tail, says one of their investigation, they give a quick shake and drop away from their tails—leaving the latter in their captor's hands. Some specimens were found with tails lacking vertebrae. Instead they possessed a flattened, jointless strip of cartilage. The scientists reasoned that these were replaced tails, and that than when it was necessary to reproduce a tail the appendage rew minus the vertebrae. The phenedongs were dull olive green in colour except on_ the belly, which was white with yellow spots.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.