IGUANAS. 101 



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. 



