102 
length. They warned me to stand out of the reach of its tail, for 
they saw it was going to turn itself rapidly round to strike. I ob- 
served a peculiar sinister look it had, derived not from the eye being 
turned within the socket, so as to indicate the object it was regard- 
ing, but from the peculiar turn of the head, as if listening and ob- 
serving. The negroes remarked that in the position in which its tail 
then lay, it was preparing to strike at me, and that dogs generally in 
setting upon them received desperate punishment, from the gashes 
and lacerations that were made intu the thick muscles of the legs by 
the rapid flinging round of the Iguana in defending itself. The sud- 
den jerk with which it drew back its tail was said to enable it to rasp 
the very flesh off the bone. The notion expressed about the infla- 
tion of the gular pouch was the consequence of seeing two very large 
Iguanas from Cuba, which distended this appendage, and let it col- 
lapse again. The skin of these animals hung about them, as if they 
had been fat, and were, at the time I saw them, emaciated..... 
“« An acquaintance has promised to supply me with notes of a pair 
of Cycluras that inhabited a hollow acacia-tree in his fields (Proso- 
pis juliflora) for some sixteen months. He supposed them male and 
female. They differed in size and in tint; and were never, during 
the whole period of his acquaintance with them, seen on the outer 
tree both together. Like the pair of weather-indicators in the 
Dutchman’s hygrometer, if one was out, the other was in. For a 
certain time every morning, one or other would be seen on some 
extreme eastern branch of the tree sunning itself, by basking at its 
length in the slant sunbeams that shot within the foliage. Their 
size and the nimble movement of the tail gave them so much the 
appearance of the ring-tailed monkey, when climbing, that a near- 
sighted observer, like myself, would mistake them for some Sapajou 
scrambling up the bark.” 
The intelligence thus promised has just been communicated to me, 
contained in the following letter from Stephen Minot, Esq., of Wor- 
cester Lodge, to Richard Hill, Esq. 
“ February 1848. 
“ Dear Sir,—In accordance with your request, I send you a few 
particulars relative to the two Guanas that were seen during a period 
of nearly two years, at Worcester Lodge, in the parish of St. Ca- 
therine. 
“‘ About the beginning of September 1844, a friend of mine, riding 
into the property, observed, as he thought, a large green lizard bask- 
ing in the sun on a hollow cashaw-tree (Prosopis juliflora), close by 
the road. He struck at it with his riding-whip, and immediately 
the animal disappeared with great swiftness into the tree. For 
several weeks after this it was occasionally seen, but was extremely 
shy, always disappearing the moment any one approached the tree. 
I gave orders that no one should, under any pretence, frighten it 
again, as a servant who had seen it informed me it was a Guana. 
By degrees it got tamer; and when I first saw it, it was, I should 
think, from 10 to 11 inches long, including the tail. About a year 
after this period it was always visible as soon as the sun became a 
