340 THE NATUEALIST IN NICAEAGUA. [Ch. XIX. 



spring, and opened out directly to continue the pursuit ; 

 but, on the spur of the moment, I struck at it with a 

 switch and prevented it. I regretted afterwards not 

 having allowed the chase to continue and watched the 

 issue, but I doubt not that the lizard, active as it was, 

 would have been caught by the swift-gliding snake, as 

 several specimens of the latter that I opened contained 

 lizards. 



Lizards are also preyed upon by many birds, and I 

 have taken a large one from the stomach of a great 

 white hawk with its wings and tail barred with black 

 (Leucopternis ghiesbreghti) that sits up on the trees in 

 the forest quietly watching for them. Their means of 

 defence are small, nor are they rapid enough in their 

 movements to escape from their enemies by flight, and 

 so they depend principally for their protection on their 

 means of concealment. The different species of Anolis 

 can change their colour from a bright green to a dark 

 brown, and so assimilate themselves in appearance to the 

 foliage or bark of trees on which they lie ; but another 

 tree-lizard, not uncommon on the banks of the rivers, is 

 not only of a beautiful green colour, but has foliaceous 

 expansions on its limbs and body, so that even when 

 amongst the long grass it looks like a leafy shoot that 

 has fallen from the trees above. I do not know of any 

 lizard that enjoys impunity from attack by the secretion 

 of any acrid or poisonous fluid from its skin, like the 

 little red and blue frog that I have already described ; 

 but I was told of one that was said to be extremely 

 venomous. As, however, besides being said to give off 

 from the pores of its skin poisonous secretion, it was 

 described to be of an inconspicuous brown colour, and to 



