1890.] HELODERMA SUSPECTUM. 149 



the best part of a hard-boiled hen's egg. Both of these acts, however, 

 were performed with marked deliberation, so much so that one would 

 little have suspected that the creatures were in any way particularly 

 hungry. In eating they employ their broad, black, forked tongue 

 to a considerable extent, protruding the organ slowly from the mouth, 

 spreading it out, and licking the morsel well before it is taken into 

 the mouth and swallowed. They may also, in drinking, occasionally 

 be seen to lap the fluid with this organ, and still in a more or less 

 deliberate manner. These two specimens have already been several 

 months in my keeping and under my daily observation, during which 

 time they ha've not eaten half a dozen hens' eggs between them, 

 sometime's taking them hard-boiled, but as a rule seeming to prefer 

 them raw ; they have refused all other nutriment which has been 

 placed before them. 



1 have shown elsewhere that another American lizard, Fhry- 

 nosoma, is capable of enduring an absolute fast for a period of three 

 months or more (' Science,' vol. vi. no. 135, Sept. 4, 1885, pp. 185, 

 186) ; and it is a well-known fact that other reptiles can do likewise. 

 Moreover I am quite sure, from what I have seen, that a good healthy 

 adult Heloderma would prove to be another representative in this 

 category, capable of sustaining a prolonged period without taking 

 any nutriment whatever into its system. 



When one of these reptiles is placed on the open ground and left 

 to itself, it soon takes itself off, and notwithstanding its rather 

 awkward mode of progression makes withal very good time. Head, 

 body, and tail are all kept in contact with the ground, while the 

 alternate fore and hind limbs are thrown forwards as the animal takes 

 its rather ample steps and keeps its way along, with no other ap- 

 parent motive in its mind beyond making good its escape. In walking 

 thu«, it constantly protrudes, and again whips back into its mouth, 

 its great black tongue, evidently to some degree using the organ as 

 a detector of anything that may possibly stand in the road to impede 

 its progress. 



If yon now suddenly check it, the animal quickly rears its body 

 from the ground by straightening out its limbs, wheels about, opens 

 its mouth widely, sna[)S its tongue in and out, and gives vent to a 

 threatening blowing sound. The whole aspect of the reptile, taking 

 its great size into consideration, is now quite sufficient to keep the 

 best of us at bay at first, and the moment it is let alone it takes the 

 opportunity to make off again, usually in another direction. 



The bite of the Helodennn is now known to be venomous, and to 

 small mammals soon fatal ; but as the writer has elsewhere published 

 accounts of this, the subject will not be renewed in the present con- 

 nexion (see Am. Nat., Nov. 1882, pp. 907, 908 ; ' Nature,' Dec. 14, 

 1882, p. 154 ; and 'Forest and Stream,' Aug. 4, 1887, p. 24). 



My two specimens seem to be quite attached to each other, and 

 are never so well satisfied as when curled up together in a sunny 

 corner of their cage ; I am unable from their external characters to 

 determine their sex, and this will only be possible later on, when we 

 come to examine into their structure. 



These lizards are, too, very fond of basking in the hottest of noon- 



[3] 



