Tea Kettle Island: Map of Tea Kettle Island

The Bermuda rock lizard, Plestiodon longirostris (formerly Eumeces longirostris) is a real species, a skink (member of the Family Scincidae, common worldwide, usually having a smooth, shiny body). Like most of the many hundreds of species of skink, it is furtive, hyper-active in hot weather, and sadly lacking in brainpower.

Its name, longirostris, means "long-nosed," but a better name would be "pointed-nosed" or "tapered-nosed," to describe the snout, which instead of being bluntly rounded as in other skinks, is sharp, its underside upturned slightly at the end like the muzzle of a Shetland sheepdog. It has large, round, dark eyes, set higher and more forward than in other species. Observing rock lizards scooting about on the beach, nosing out picnic morsels from the sand, it is not difficult to see them as tiny, slithering puppies.

Adults are black and shiny, with faces the color of boiled yams. They are about four and one-half inches long, not counting the tail, which in a lucky individual may add another four inches. Newly-hatched Bermuda rock lizards are brown, with four narrow, creamy stripes extending from nose to rump, golden backs, and startling lapis lazuli tails. They are woefully naive, with very little chance of surviving beyond their first few weeks due to the predatory actions of animals that have been introduced to Bermuda by humans.

Tea Kettle Island

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Monday, August 9, 2010

Map of Tea Kettle Island

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