194 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



probably the death warrant of its contiuental relatives, but in Cuba 

 it had no four-footed enemies except the hutia, or jungle rat, that now 

 and then destroys its eggs. 



An equally favored islander is the grayish-yellow rock lizard, 

 abounding in the uplands of Cuba and Hayti. The lizard-killing 



cranes of Honduras 

 have not found their 

 way to the Antilles,, 

 and the lagartilla still 

 basks in the sun that 

 once smiled upon the 

 indolence of the na- 

 ked Lucayans. 



The toco, or Cu- 

 ban hornbill, how- 

 ever, devours small 

 reptiles of all sorts, 

 and the West Indian 

 tree lizards have 

 become almost as- 

 nimble as squirrels. 

 They dodge behind 

 branches and wait to- 

 r,,„,^^ ascertain the origin 



of every flitting shad- 

 ow, but from imminent danger save themselves by a swift descent,, 

 followed by a bold leap into the thickets of the underbrush. Their 

 courtship is quite as grotesque as that of the strutting bush pheas- 

 ants. The males will swing their heads up and down and puff up 

 their throat-bags till their skin seems on the point of disruption, 

 while the objects of their rivalry sit blinking, reluctant to risk an 

 open manifestation of preference. Some gorgeously beautiful va- 

 rieties are found in Jamaica: greenish-blue, with a metallic luster, 

 and rows of bright crimson spots, as if the design of protective 

 colors had been patterned after the flower shrubs of the tropics. 



The word iguana is of Mexican origin, and rarely used in the 

 Spanish West Indies, but the animal itself is — for culinary purposes, 

 though the Ilaytian negroes do not go quite as far as the mongrels of 

 Yucatan, where iguana farmers fatten the defenseless reptiles with 

 cornmeal, in wickerwork baskets, that are brought to market as a 

 New England poultry fancier would fetcli in a cratoful of spring 

 chickens. But, prejudice aside, there is no harm in an iguana 

 fricassee; the meat is white and insipid, but takes the flavor of every 

 spice, and is far more digestible than such hyperborean delicacies as. 



