is a proof of the alteration that a few years can effect in the value of property, for cats in the first settling of the colony were worth ten shillings each, and not to be lightly parted with. Kittens, however, appeared to be allowed to spring up in unlimited numbers in the lone houses in the bush, owing perhaps to the scarcity of any other sort of children's playthings in such localities; and I remember seeing a little only daughter in a solitary home in the forest, who in respect of mates was as badly off as Wordsworth's "Lucy Fell" on her "wide moor," amusing herself with three generations of cats for her sole toys, the numerical strength of the party amounting to eight.
The privileged pussy that we retained brought to us a few days afterwards, as if pleased to show us a natural curiosity, a bright yellow lizard beautifully marked with small patches of black, and to the best of my recollection, twenty-two inches in length. We never saw another exactly like it, though I afterwards espied one in the bush that seemed of a similar length and shape, but of a dull drab colour like that of the decayed leaves over which it was running.
The snout of both creatures was long and slender, presenting a striking contrast to that of the lizard which the colonists call the "bob-tailed" guana, or in colonial pronunciation "gew-anna," whose head and snout form an obtuse oval, whilst the tail looks as if amputated by some accident, giving the animal a most singular and quaint appearance. These bob-tailed lizards are covered with large armour-like scales, so much the colour of ironstone gravel as readily to escape observation; indeed the only one that I am aware of having seen, excepting in a
