In a memoir on the Reptiles and Batrachians of the Solomon Islands, which was read before the Zoological Society, on May 6th, 1884,[439] Mr. Boulenger remarked that very little was known about the herpetology of these islands until two important collections, which I sent to the British Museum in 1883 and 1884, brought to light several new and interesting forms, such as could hardly have been expected from this region. “The position of this group of islands on the limits of two great zoological districts,”—this author proceeded to observe—“renders the study of its fauna of special interest, as it is the point where many of the Papuasian and Polynesian forms intermingle. Curiously, all the Batrachians belong to species not hitherto found elsewhere, and one of them is even so strongly modified as to be the type of a distinct family.”

According to Mr. Boulenger, the Reptiles may be grouped under four headings, viz.:—

1. Species belonging to both the Papuasian and Polynesian districts.

2. Indo-Malayan or Papuasian species, not extending further east or south-east.

3. Polynesian species, not extending further north and west than New Ireland.

4. Species not hitherto found elsewhere than in the Solomons (and New Ireland.)

All of these 19 Reptiles were included in my collection, with the exception of Corucia zebrata, which, however, came under my observation. I will now proceed to refer more particularly to the Reptile-fauna of this region.

Crocodiles.—The species of Crocodile (Crocodilus porosus, Schneid), which is so common in the Solomon Group, ranges from India and South China through the Malay Archipelago and Papuan Islands to North Australia. In these islands crocodiles appear to frequent in greatest numbers the swamps and sandy shores of uninhabited coral islands, such as those of the Three Sisters, and the coasts of the larger islands in the vicinity of the mouths of the streams and rivers. I frequently surprised them basking on the sand under the shade of a tree. On one occasion I was standing on the spreading roots of a tree that were exposed on the beach, when one of these reptiles darted out from under my feet and dived into the sea. Of the marks that they make on the sand when lying at rest, an oblong shallow impression corresponding to the head, and a curved well-defined grove caused by the tail are alone specially recognisable. When they are not alarmed and move leisurely along, they leave a double row of footprints on the sand, with a narrow median furrow produced by the weight of the tail; but when they have been disturbed and make a rush to escape, they raise their tail and leave only the tracks of their feet on the sand. These crocodiles are equally at home in salt and fresh water. I have frequently passed them in my Rob Roy canoe when they have been floating as though asleep at the surface of the sea; and it was always in the sea that they found a refuge when my little craft intruded itself within their haunts. They came under my notice in the fresh-water lakes of Santa Anna and Stirling Island, and in the lower courses of the streams in several localities. They are apparently in no uncongenial conditions in the salt-water lagoon of Eddystone Island, although its waters receive the hot sulphureous vapours of submerged fumaroles.

These crocodiles do not apparently attain a greater length than 12 or 13 feet. Mr. Sproul shot one at Santa Anna which measured 9¹/₂ feet. A female that I shot in the Shortland Islands, measured 11 feet. One of the seamen of the “Lark,” named Prior, obtained from the natives the skull of a rather larger specimen. Out of half-a-dozen individuals seen on the Three Sisters, not one measured more than 7 or 8 feet.[440] Mr. Bateman, a trader resident at Ugi, told me that at Wano on the St. Christoval coast he saw a very large crocodile which, from his description, appears to have been twice as long as any that I saw. It was, however, dusk at the time; and in connection with this circumstance I should add that I have found actual measurement to reduce the apparent length of a crocodile from 14 to 11 feet.

Natives are rarely attacked by these reptiles, and they show little or no fear of them. I have seen a full-grown crocodile dart under a line of swimmers without causing any dismay. Of the numbers I saw, all were but too anxious to get out of my way; and their cowardly nature is well shown in the account of my capture of a specimen which is given below. However, I came upon a man of Santa Anna who had had his leg broken by one of these reptiles. The natives of Rubiana hold the crocodile in veneration and work without fear in the places which it frequents. They believe that only faithless wives are seized and carried off by the monster. Pigs are occasionally the prey of the crocodile; but its usual diet appears to be opossums (Cusci), large lacertilians, and fish.

The following account of the capture of a crocodile may interest some of my readers. It was effected by no more formidable weapons than by a number of long staves and a small “bull-dog” revolver. Accompanied by six natives I was making the ascent of a large stream on the north-west side of Alu, when some of my companions espied a large crocodile at the bottom of a deep pool about 200 yards from the mouth of the stream. In setting to work to effect its capture my men proceeded very methodically to work, and evidently knew the tactics which the creature would employ. Standing in the water just below the pool, we stood awaiting the descent of the crocodile down the stream, whilst one of the natives was rousing it up with a long pole to make it leave its hiding-place. After a little time it began to get uneasy, and leaving the pool began to descend the stream. Where we were standing, the stream was only knee-deep, and as the reptile passed us in the shallow water some natives hit it on the head with their poles, whilst others hurled their poles sharpened at the ends, striking it in several places, and I planted a bullet behind its neck. The creature showed no fight and immediately hid itself in the pools near the mouth of the stream. During two hours, after we had been driving it from one pool to another by means of our pointed poles and staves, we seemed no nearer to its capture. At length there was a loud out-cry from the natives. The crocodile was making a final rush for life to cross the bar at the mouth of the stream and escape into the sea. We all followed, some in the canoe and some through the water; and for a short time I thought that the creature would escape. But being a little disabled by our previous attacks, its progress across the bar was somewhat checked; and the foremost of my men caught hold of its tail just as it was getting into deep water. Very quickly we all came up, and assisted in drawing it high and dry on the beach; and whilst two of our number kept hold of its tail, the remainder belaboured its neck with rocks and sticks until it died.[441] Its length proved to be 11 feet. Throughout the whole chase the reptile made no outcry, and even when we were belabouring it to death it only gave a kind of growl. In its stomach I found a large quantity of partially digested food with the remains of an opossum (Cuscus) and a large lizard 1¹/₂ feet long (probably Corucia zebrata). It was a female, and, in the oviduct I came upon an egg, which my natives appropriated, saying that it was very good food; but they do not usually eat the flesh. I was unable from want of space to keep more than the head of the animal, which I cut off and carried back in my canoe to the ship. The skull is now in the British Museum.

Lizards. The Lacertilians are well represented in these islands. Those at present described are given in the subjoined list.

The lizards, which most frequently meet the eyes of the visitors in the vicinity of the beaches, are the two skinks, Mabuia nigra and cyanura. As a rule those species that are common at the coast have a wide range, extending either into Polynesia or Papuasia or into both these regions (vide page 307). The species peculiar to these islands came less frequently under my observation. Thus, that of Lepidodactylus guppyi, is founded on a single (female) specimen I found in Faro or Fauro Island in Bougainville Straits. Corucia zebrata never came under my notice alive; it is said at Ugi to find its home in the foliage of the higher trees. Doubtless if I could have penetrated to the higher regions of the large islands, I should have obtained a large number of new species. My collections refer for the most part to the sea-border and its vicinity. In the elevated interior of such an island as Guadalcanar there is a region of great promise for the collector; but I shall have a further occasion to refer to this topic.

The Monitor, Varanus indicus, may be often seen at the coast, basking in the glare of the mid-day sun on the trunks of prostrate trees or on the bare rocks. It is considered edible by the natives of Bougainville Straits. Whilst we were anchored at Oima Atoll, Lieutenant Leeper captured a very large specimen (5 feet 7³/₄ inches long)[442] on the rocks close to the sea, and towed it off alive to the ship. After we had tried in vain to strangle it by a cord, a lead was fastened to it and it was sunk overboard, but an hour passed before we could say that the reptile was really dead. This Monitor is probably able to swim considerable distances. It very likely owes its wide range (from Celebes to the Solomon Group including Cape York) to the agency of floating trees. On examining the stomach and intestines, I found them empty. An enormous quantity of fat, developed in two large lobes in connection with the omentum or some other part of the peritoneum, almost filled the abdominal cavity. With this store of sustenance and heat, these reptiles must be able to live without food for a long time.[443]

Snakes. Hitherto, the following six species of Ophidians have been found in the Solomon Group. All of them were included in my collection and one of them has been described by Mr. Boulenger as a new species.

One of the commonest of snakes throughout these islands is Enygrus carinatus, a harmless species of the Boa family. It often possesses considerable bulk in proportion to its length. One specimen which I obtained in Treasury Island measured 3¹/₂ feet in length and 6 inches in girth. I handled a good many living snakes whilst in these islands, since the natives used to bring them in numbers to me both on board and on shore. The statements of the natives and of the white men resident in this region and the general appearance of the snakes had led me to believe that there were no poisonous species in the group. I was therefore somewhat surprised when, on my arrival in England, I learned from Dr. GÜnther that I had found a new species as poisonous as the Cobra. On being shown the specimen by Mr Boulenger, I at once recognised an old friend which had been brought on board in a bamboo by the natives at Faro Island and had got loose on the deck. Whilst the men standing round were preparing to kill it with more regard for their own safety than for my feelings, I caught it quickly around the neck and held it under water until it was dead. The natives certainly were not aware of its venomous character, nor was Mr. Isabell, who was my right-hand man in these matters, and used to manage the ticklish progress of removing the snakes from their bamboo-tubes in a manner only suitable in the case of harmless species. I only obtained one specimen of this snake, which was about 2¹/₂ feet in length. It is named Hoplocephalus par and belongs to the ElapidÆ, a family of poisonous colubrine snakes which possess the physiognomy of the harmless snakes of the same sub-order, and include the Indian and African Cobras with other well known venomous species. In the footnote I have quoted Mr. Boulenger’s description of its general appearance for the information of those who visit the group.[445]

Batrachians.—The Spanish discoverers in 1567 remarked that the natives of Isabel worshipped the toad (vide page 203), and one of the officers of Surville’s expedition in 1769, described in his journal a remarkable toad from the same island;[446] yet it is only within recent years that any Batrachians have been collected in this region. Before I arrived in the group only two species were known to science, and to this number my collections, which were made in the islands of Bougainville Straits, have added seven new species, including a type of a new family. The following list represents the Batrachian fauna of the Solomon Islands, as far as it is at present known:

The natives of the islands of Bougainville Straits, where, as I have just remarked, my batrachian collection was chiefly made, have given frogs the general name of “appa-appa” in imitation of their noise, just as they have named the smaller lizards “Kurru-rupu” for the same reason. Amongst the particular species of frogs, I may refer to the large toad-like Rana buboniformis, which I found in Treasury Island, and on the highest peak of the island of Faro. Rana guppyi, according to Mr. Boulenger’s report, attains a larger size than any other species of the genus, with the exception of the Bull-Frog of North America. Rana opisthodon affords an instance of a Batrachian[447] which dispenses with the usual larval or tadpole stage, “the metamorphoses being hurried through within the egg.” On this subject I made the following notes. Whilst descending from one of the peaks of Faro Island, I stopped at a stream some 400 feet above the sea, where my native boys collected from the moist crevices of the rocks close to the water a number of transparent gelatinous balls rather smaller than a marble.[448] Each of these balls contained a young frog about 4 lines in length, apparently fully developed, with very long hind legs and short fore legs, no tail, and bearing on the sides of the body small tufts of what seemed to be branchiÆ. On my rupturing the ball or egg in which the little animal was doubled up, the tiny frog took a marvellous leap into its existence and disappeared before I could catch it. When I reached the ship an hour after, I found that some of the eggs which had been carried in a tin had been ruptured on the way by the jolting, and the liberated frogs were leaping about with great activity. On placing some of them in an open bottle 8 inches high, I had to put the cover on as they kept leaping out. Mr. Boulenger remarking on this observation says, that there are no gills, but that on each side of the abdomen there are regular transverse folds (with an arrangement like that of the gill-openings of Plagiostomous Fishes), the function of which probably is that of breathing-organs. The tip of the snout is, he says, furnished with a small conical protuberance, projecting slightly through the delicate envelope of the egg, and evidently used to perforate that covering. In the instance also of Cornufer solomonis, another new species included in my collection, Mr. Boulenger remarks that there is every reason to believe that the young undergo the metamorphoses within the egg.

With regard to the interesting species, Ceratobatrachus guentheri, which forms the type of a new family, CeratobatrachidÆ, the same writer observes that it is remarkable for the numerous appendages and symmetrical folds which ornate its skin. It is, in fact, “all points and angles,” and may be truly termed a horned frog. There is great variation both in the coloration and in the integuments. “Out of the twenty specimens before me,” thus Mr. Boulenger writes, “no two are perfectly alike.” The development is presumed to be of the type in which the metamorphoses are hurried through within the egg. These horned frogs are very numerous in the islands of Bougainville Straits, and so closely do they imitate their surroundings, both in colour and pattern, that on one occasion I captured a specimen by accidentally placing my hand upon it when clasping a tree.

It is particularly important to notice not only that the Batrachians of the Solomon Islands, as far as we at present know, do not occur elsewhere, but also that in this region a distinct family has been produced. These facts support the conclusions deducible from the geological evidence that these islands are of considerable geological age (vide page x.). The insular and isolated conditions have been preserved during a period sufficiently extended for the development of a peculiar Batrachian fauna.

The modes of dispersal of frogs and toads, and, in truth, of the whole Batrachian class, are matters of which we are to a great extent ignorant. Frogs are usually stated to be absent from oceanic islands, a peculiarity of distribution which apparently accords with the circumstance that neither they nor their spawn can sustain submersion in sea-water. The occurrence, however, of three species of Cornufer in the Caroline and Fiji Islands, and of a species of Bato in the Sandwich Islands,[449] affects the general application of this conclusion. It may be suggested that these exceptions are due to human agency; but if so, it is difficult to understand why they have not been found in such a well explored island as New Caledonia.[450]

In concluding this chapter I will refer to the circumstance that my collections of the Reptiles and Batrachians of this large group have only in a manner broken ground in a region which promises the richest results to the collector. It cannot be doubted that in the elevated interiors of the large islands, such as those of Bougainville and Guadalcanar, there will be found a peculiar Reptilian and Batrachian fauna, the study of which will be of the highest importance for the furtherance of our knowledge of these geologically ancient classes of animals. I believe I am correct in stating that it was on account of the highly interesting Batrachian collections I sent to the British Museum, that I received a grant for further exploration from the Royal Society, which, however, I was unfortunately prevented from turning to account. The work has yet to be done, and there can be little doubt that the man who is first able to examine the lofty interior of such an island as Guadalcanar will bring back collections, the importance of which will amply recompense him for any hardship or personal risk he may have endured. My experience was confined to the sea-border and its vicinity. The future explorer will find his field in the mountainous interiors and on the highest peaks.

Note (April 19th, 1887).—Since I penned the above, further collections of reptiles and batrachians, made in these islands by Mr. C. M. Woodford, have been described by Mr. Boulenger at a recent meeting of the Zoological Society. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Woodford before he left England, and I hope that he has been able to accomplish his purpose of penetrating into the interior of one of the larger islands of the group.