I78 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SEAS 



finement bring no modification to its naturally ferocious 

 disposition. 



In India and elsewhere its depredations have led to 

 Crocodile-hunting ranking as a well-paid profession, 

 payment being made according to size or the evidence 

 of human victims as shown by bangles, nose-rings, etc., 

 found in the quarry's interior. 



Like other Crocodiles it lays large numbers of elongate 

 eggs buried in sand or debris, and a bounty is likewise 

 offered for the destruction of these. Unconscious friends 

 of man are the big monitor lizards, which probe the ground 

 with their lancet-shaped heads and extract large numbers 

 of Crocodile eggs. 



The Marine Iguana (Amblyrhynchus cri status) confined 

 to the Galapagos Islands is unique in being the only salt- 

 water lizard in existence, and has been the desideratum 

 of every zoo since it was first described in detail by Charles 

 Darwin in 1832. In appearance this quite harmless 

 Reptile is a veritable dragon. Adult males reach 3! ft. 

 in length, are black in colour and develop in the breeding 

 season, complex blotches of a metallic green and red. 

 A row of large spines runs from the neck to the tail-tip. 

 The body is generally tubercled and the head bears large 

 conical knobs. The dragon-like appearance is further 

 enhanced by the Reptile sometimes blowing thin jets of 

 vapour from its nostrils. In temper and way of life few 

 creatures can be more harmless, and in fact it is so little 

 used to molestation that it gathers sociably about chance 

 explorers. 



Though sometimes solitary or living in pairs, it generally 

 congregates in herds of a hundred or more. It scrambles 



