It does not dig its own holes under the rocks. Usually it shares the burrow of a black-and-white petrel—known in New Zealand as the mutton-bird—and it remains there even when the bird incubates its eggs and feeds its nestlings. Apparently a mutually satisfactory arrangement has been reached between petrel and lizard. The former usually are in their nests only at night. The tuatera spends most of the night away from home, hunting for the insects which are its favorite food. Occasionally, it has been observed, a host will become tired of his persistent house guest and try to evict it. In such a case the tuatera never puts up a fight. It leaves placidly and tries to find some other petrel with whom it can share quarters. If this search fails it will, as a last extremity, scoop out its own burrow, although apparently such labor is against its deeply fixed principles of making no effort which possibly can be avoided. The lizard goes to sleep about the middle of April, the beginning of winter in New Zealand, and wakes late in August, when spring is well underway. Then for seven months it grows fat on insects. The creature is reportedly capable of living for 500 years and more. It shares its longevity with its distant relatives, the great turtles. Its long life, during most of which it continues to breed, doubtless has been a major factor in its racial survival. The ancient reptiles were plentiful when white men first came to New Zealand early in the last century. The Maoris regarded them with superstitious awe and avoided them as much as possible. But early British settlers and their dogs used to kill the inoffensive creatures for sport. This was the first active enmity the tuateras ever had known. They saved themselves by withdrawing to the barren islands and becoming even more seclusive in their ways of life. Thus they clung to a thin thread of existence until an enlightened government threw the protection of the law around them.