the Maori name of a New Zealandlizard, or reptile, Hatteria punctata, Gray; calledalso Sphenodon puntatum.
1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand'(Church Missionary Society), p. 218:
«Tua tira, a species of lizard.»
1863. `Mahoe Leaves,' p. 47:
«A small boy of a most precocious nature, who was termed `tuatara,' from a horrid sort of lizard that the natives abhor.»
1890. `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition':
«The Tuatara is the largest existing New Zealand reptile. Itis closely allied to the Lizards; but on account of certainpeculiarities of structure, some of which tend to connect itwith the Crocodiles, is placed by Dr. Guenther in a separateorder ( Rhynchocephalina).»