134 



JUNGLE ISLAND 



sole of my shoe in place of the finger that the}^ 

 might have preferred, I cannot tell just hovr 

 painful their bite is. 



One late afternoon I was attracted to the door 

 of the shack by the creaking of branches in a 

 near-by tree. Forty feet above the ground, 

 crawling out over the slender branches, was the 

 big lizard called iguana. This iguana was ' a 

 heavy-bodied fellow, five feet long. He cHmbed 

 awkwardly and the branches swayed alarmingly 

 under his weight. While he was moving about 

 he could very easily be seen, but as soon as he 

 had settled himself along a limb not as thick as 

 his own body he was very hard to see, although 



Fig. 59. Iguana 



I knew perfectly well where he was and there were 

 not many leaves in the way. 



His upper parts were a dark greenish hue, and 

 his flanks were yellow. Both colors fitted well 

 enough the color scheme of the tree, and the 

 pinkish ruff of spines running down the middle of 

 his back looked like the irregular knotty bark 



