West Indies. 477 



is somewhat interesting. One is about a foot long, and liad the 

 power of changing the colour of its skin from a greenish hue, 

 its ordinary tint, to all the shades of yellow, green, blue, and 

 brown. The second kind, about the same length, is called by 

 the negroes the galley wasp : they are much afraid of it, but, 

 I believe, without good reason. It is true that it is bolder 

 than other lizards, and will sometimes show fight when 

 attacked; but its bite (if it ever does bite) must be almost 

 harmless. The third is a small grey lizard, very uncommon; 

 this being the only one I saw during twenty years' residence : 

 it was on the high road, and was discovered by my servant, 

 who (according to my rule) was riding before me. I desired 

 him to catch it : he refused, saying, " he could not ; that it 

 was bad lizard ; and, if he touched it, his fingers would drop 

 off, joint by joint." As there was no reasoning against a pre-? 

 judice like that, I dismounted, and caught it myself. 



Snakes eat lizards, and generally gorge the head of the 

 lizard and its fore legs first; in which case you see the tail and 

 hinder legs projecting out of the snake's mouth : but it some-* 

 times happens that the snake seizes the lizard by the tail, 

 when its head, with its bright eyes, will be seen peeping out 

 of the destroyer's mouth, quite alive, and struggling hard, but 

 in vain, to get away. [See Professor Henslow's description of 

 a parallel case with the common British snake and frog, 

 Vol. IV. p. 279.] It is well known how slowly the serpent 

 tribe swallow their food [The Boa. constrictor will, in Eng- 

 land, swallow a live rabbit with the speed of thought. — J". Z).] ; 

 and, as the lizard is very tenacious of life, its lower extremities 

 are pretty well digested before the head and upper parts are 

 dead or nearly swallowed. 



Several species of lizard have a power of projecting and 

 contracting a fold of the skin, which covers the throat, in a 

 verjr curious manner : the creature is always standing still when 

 it does this; the projected portion of the skin is spotted of a 

 scarlet colour. Possibly this peculiarity may enable the lizard 

 to get its food more readily, by attracting the attention of flies 

 and other insects. 



The guana, or esculent lizard, is no longer found in 

 Jamaica. I once saw a man hawking one about the streets 

 of Spanish Town, in search of an epicure who would be its 

 purchaser ; the man told me he brought it from St. Domingo. 

 It was of a light brown colour, and about two feet long. 



Crabs, The land crabs in Jamaica* are of two very 



* A species of land crab also abounds in India. Bishop Heber states 

 that " All the grass land through the Deccan generally swarms with a small 

 land crab, which burrows in the ground, and runs with considerable swift- 



