1835.] TERRESTRIAL AMBLYRHYNCHUS. 



38i> 



as they can. I have frequently observed small fly-eating lizards, 

 when watching anything, nod their heads in precisely the same 

 manner ; but I do not at all know for what purpose. If this 

 Amblyrhynchus is held and plagued with a stick, it will bite 

 it very severely; but I caught many by the tail, and they 

 never tried to bite me. If two are placed on the ground and 

 held together, they will fight, and bite each other till blood is 

 drawn. 



The individuals, and they are the greater number, which in- 

 habit the lower country, can scarcely taste a drop of water 

 throughout the year ; but they consume much of the succulent 

 cactus, the branches of which are occasionally broken off by the 

 wind. I several times threw a piece to two or three of them 

 when together ; and it was amusing enough to see them trying to 

 seize and carry it away in their mouths, like so many hungry dogs 

 with a bone. They eat very deliberately, but do not chew their 

 food. The little birds are aware how harmless these creatures 

 are : I have seen one of the thick-billed finches picking at one 

 end of a piece of cactus (which is much relished by all the ani- 

 mals of the lower region), whilst a lizard was eating at the other 

 end ; and afterwards the little bird with the utmost indifference 

 hopped on the back of the reptile. 



I opened the stomachs of several, and found them full of ve- 

 getable fibres and leaves of different trees, especially of an acacia. 

 In the upper region they live chiefly on the acid and astringent 

 berries of the guayavita, under which trees I have seen these 

 lizards and the huge tortoises feeding together. To obtain the 

 acacia-leaves they crawl up the low stunted trees ; and it is not 

 uncommon to see a pair quietly browsing, whilst seated on a 

 branch several feet above the ground. These lizards, when 

 cooked, yield a white meat, which is liked by those whose sto- 

 machs soar above all prejudices. Humboldt has remarked that 

 in intertropical South America, all lizards which inhabit dry 

 regions are esteemed delicacies for the table. The inhabitants 

 state that those which inhabit the upper damp parts drink water, 

 but that the others do not, like the tortoises, travel up for it from 

 the lower sterile country. At the time of our visit, the females 

 had within their bodies numerous, large, elongated eggs, which 

 they lay in their burrows : the inhabitants seek them for food. 



