ON THE " GILA MONSTEli." I>1 
head wu.s raised and, licking the lips and yawniiiir to dis- 
close the inky blackness inside the mouth, preparations 
were begun on a sleepin<i: place. Shortly afterward an egg 
Avas broken into a dish and placed within reach ; it was 
taken with evident relish, in the same manner as the wa- 
ter; the chin was dipped into it and the tongue thrust out, 
bent downward and drawn back again. The tongue is 
thick and riband-shaped, i. e., long, narrow and somewhat 
depressed. In protrusion it first makes its appearance as 
a single sharp point ; as it comes farther out the tip sepa- 
rates into two points, and the organ is seen to be forked 
for a short distance. When fully protruded, the asi)ect 
is changed and the outline of the extremity, as seen from 
a])ove, reseml)les that of the tail of a shad. As the tongue 
is drawn in, the tips approach each other till once more 
closely applied. Thus, the forked portion moves sidewise 
like the blades of a pair of scissors as the tongue goes out 
and l>ack. Any of the fluid that adhered was carried into 
the mouth by the retraction, and no doubt the tongue was 
followed by a slight current induced by suction that took 
in a little more ; the amount of suction, however, must have 
been very slight, judging from the time occupied in eat- 
ing a single egg. On each of four days one egg was con- 
sumed ; then followed a week of fasting, the most of which 
was cloudy weather. Readiness to feed depended greatly 
on the temperature and l)rightness of the day : in conse- 
quence the meals were quite irregular. 
On the bottom of the box there were some inches of 
sand with several rocks ; under the side of one of the lat- 
ter the l)urrow was made. The digging was all done with 
the hands ; beginning with the left the sand was thrown 
back with some force in slow strokes, about thirty to the 
minute, then the right was used in the same way. The 
motions were outward or lateral, not vertical like those of 
