Abstract
The lizards were hideous, or so the sailors thought. Captain Robert FitzRoy of the British Royal Navy claimed that "few animals are uglier." Even after British buccaneer Ambrose Cowley wrote that they had "extraordinary sweet meate," the crew of the HMS Rattler could not be persuaded to taste one. Instead, the Rattler's captain, James Colnett, wanted nothing to do with these strange lizards, which "go to sea in herds a-fishing, and sun themselves on the rocks like seals."