ON THE "GILA MONSTER" {IModenna msjyeclum). 
BY S. GARMAN. 
Late in May, 1889, through the khidness of Miss Mary 
Woodman, the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cam- 
bridge, Mass., came into possession of an unusually hand- 
some specimen of the "Gila monster," one of the largest 
of the lizards and the only one reputed venomous. He 
had been secured at Casa Grande, Arizona, by Mr. Dan- 
iel H. Bacon and forwarded in such a manner as to reach 
us little the worse for the handling and the change of cli- 
mate. His arrival in good health and in the warm season 
gave opportunity for taking a numl^er of notes that may 
add something to wliat is already known concerning the 
species. For more than ji year he was kept alive and un- 
der observation. Animals that have been brought any 
distance usually arrive very thirsty, and the iirst move 
toward domesticating them is made in giving them water. 
Heloderma was no exception. In an arid dwelling place 
such as his, four or five dnys, the length of the journey, 
would not be expected to prove a very long time between 
drinks, but he drank as if nearly famished. A stupid and 
impassive appearance did not prevent such manifcbtation 
of intense enjoyment as made it a pleasure to Match the 
slow process of satisfying what, for the time, was the 
irreatest desire of the creature's existence. More than 
half an hour elapsed from the time the snout was brought 
down to the liquid and the tongue thrust into it until the 
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