of the West Indies, a lizard about the size of our own smallest species. I was in the habit of feeding them with flies and other insects, and having one day placed in the cage with them a very large garden spider, Epeira diadema, one of the lizards darted at it, but seized it only by the leg. The spider instantly ran round and round the creature's mouth, weaving a very thick web round both jaws, and then gave it a severe bite in the lip, just as this species of spider usually does with any large insect which it has taken. The lizard was greatly distressed, and I removed the spider, and rubbed off the web, the confinement of which appeared to give it great annoyance; but in a few days it died, though previously in as perfect health as its companion, which lived for a long time afterwards." *

GENUS IGUANA (LAUR.).

To this genus, which is very restricted in extent, belong the largest species of the Family, and almost of the Order. They are marked by a prolongation of the skin, which stretching under the whole surface of the head and neck, forms a very thin, but very deep dewlap or pouch, the border of which describes a curve, and is set along its front edge with spinous processes like the teeth of a saw. The skin is irregularly folded on the sides of this dewlap, behind which there is another transverse fold passing obliquely over each shoulder. On the sides of the neck and body, also, the skin has a tendency to form loose folds. The head is rather large, and has "British. Reptiles." Intr. xx.

H

somewhat of the form of a four-sided pyramid. The neck is compressed, the body rounded, but flattened on the under surface. The toes are long, and very unequal, increasing rapidly in length from the innermost to the fourth, which is longest, the fifth being short: their edges are notched. The tail is long, slender, compressed, and tapered to a fine point.

The general surface of the body is covered with small square or lozenge-form scales, keeled along the middle, which slightly overlap each other; those of the tail present at regular intervals verticillations or rings, produced by every fourth or fifth series being a little larger than the others, but this structure ceases to be perceptible towards the tip. The line of scales which runs down the middle of the back and tail, forms a saw-like crest, commencing from the hindhead, and reaching the extremity of the tail. It is composed of strongly compressed scales, which are pointed and curved backwards, and which gradually diminish in height towards the end of the tail. On the top and sides of the head the scales are larger than the rest, but varying in size, many-sided, some flat, some convex, and some ridged the lips are covered with large four-sided plates. The under surface of the thighs has a single row of pores, surrounded by small scales disposed like the petals of a flower around its disk.*

We have already mentioned MM. Duméril and Bibron's conclusions of the nature of these Reptiles' food from anatomical investigation. These are confirmed by a fact related of a living Iguana,

*Dum. et Bibr.

which was kept in a hot-house near Bristol. It had refused to eat insects and other kinds of animal food, until happening to be near some kidney-bean plants, it began to eat their leaves, and was thenceforward supplied with these plants. Other accounts, as we shall presently see, describe them in their native regions as feeding on fruits.

Some writers have enumerated many species of this genus, but the eminent herpetologists above mentioned reduce the whole to three, all of which are widely spread over South America and the

been described and figured by Spix, in his magnificent work on the Zoology of Brazil, under five different names.

This is the common Iguana or Guana of the European colonies, a name which seems to be of Indian origin, and which was probably that by which the reptile was distinguished at the time of the discovery of America. It is said to have been common in the West Indian Isles in former years, but it seems to have disappeared, at least from Jamaica; it is possible, however, that some large species of Cyclura, an allied genus, inhabiting that island, and provincially called by the name of Guana, may have been mistaken for it.

The Green Iguana attains a length of five or six feet; its general hue is green, more or less deep, sometimes merging into blue: the sides are marked with oblique stripes of brown, edged with yellow; a line of yellow frequently appears over the shoulder; the tail is crossed by broad bands of brown, alternating with the green. In some specimens, the sides and limbs are variously clouded or spotted with brown.

The esteem in which the flesh of this reptile is held in the countries which it inhabits is spoken of by most writers who mention its existence. Delicatissima and sapidissima are among the numerous specific names which have been assigned to it. Excellent, however, as is its flavour, it is not considered very wholesome, and to persons labouring under certain diseases it is highly injurious.

In Paramaribo, where the Iguana is considered one of the most delicious animals brought to the daily market, it is always in request and sells

at a high price, being immoderately esteemed by those epicures who consider a fricaseed frog preferable to a chicken. The eggs, which are spoken of as very agreeable in flavour, and which are constantly sought after in Surinam and Guiana, have common qualities with those of the Turtle, especially those taken from the gravid Turtle killed for the market;-a yolk that never boils hard, and a slight envelope of albumen that never whitens. They are described as being as large as, but a little longer than, pigeons' eggs; equally thick at both ends, but soft, with powdery crystals of carbonate of lime, and therefore differing from the egg of the Alligator, which they resemble in shape, but which has a shell unusually thick and compact. They are found deposited in sand, some six dozen together.*

Goldsmith gives a very graphic description of the manner of pursuing and taking the Iguana as a pastime. From his speaking of the Mapou, the Colonial-French for the Eriodendron, or silk cotton-tree, it is probable he derived his account from Father Labat's amusing notices of tropical natural history. After repeating that its flesh is considered the greatest delicacy of America, he represents the sportsmen of the tropics as going out to hunt this Lizard with the same sort of preparation for success that an English poacher makes for the seizure of the pheasant or the hare. "In the beginning of the season," he says, "when the great floods of the tropical climates are passed

* At Aritaka, on the Essequibo, Schomburghk relates that south of the rapids, numerous sandbanks rising out of the water serve as a depository for the eggs of the Guana; in a very short time they took some hundreds.