184 MR. W. S. MACLEAY ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF URANIA. 
bellies, and tails turned up in spiral, peep from under the dusky flat stones, which are 
generally sea-broken and time-worn pieces of Madrepores,—when those beautiful Land- 
crabs, Gecarcinus ruricola!, Desm., and Grapsus pictus?, Desm., are running about over 
the sea-weed that has been left by the tide,—and finally, when every object to the 
dazzled eye seems quivering under the broiling sun,—the entomologist will have a 
tolerably correct specimen of what may be termed the general appearance of a sandy 
sea-shore in the island of Cuba. The whole scene is harmoniously sultry. 
Here order in variety we see, 
And here, though all things differ, all agree. 
In such a situation, for many miles at least on each side of the Havana, not a sound 
breaks on the ear except the melancholy roar of the surf as it dashes on the iron-bound 
coast ; no quadruped, in short, is to be seen, and scarcely a bird. Here, nevertheless, 
have I managed to pass several solitary scorching hours with pleasure, as many valuable 
insects may be collected, and among them Urania Fernandine. 
But to return to the vegetation of such a place. Of all the shrubs above mentioned, 
perhaps the Omphalea triandra, Linn., or Omphalea nucifera, Swartz, is the most in- 
teresting. It is the Cob or Hog-nut of Jamaica, and Avellano of the inhabitants of 
Cuba. Although belonging to the poisonous family of Euphorbiacee, it affords a most 
delicious and wholesome kernel, from eating which in plenty I have never experienced 
species of his genus Anolis, which, by the way, is not the Anolis of Rochefort, but his Gobemouche, so that 
the confusion is almost inextricable. Our Cuban Lizard resembles the genus Anolis in no respect farther than 
having a thick, fleshy, and not extensible tongue, and so belongs to Cuvier’s group of Saurian Reptiles, which 
he calls Iguaniens. As its toes are free and unequal, it belongs to the group Stelliones of Cuvier, or to Mr. Bell’s 
tribe of Stellionina; and as it has no teeth in the palate, and the toes are simple, it appears to agree with the 
last-mentioned naturalist’s family Stellionide. As the tail has very small scales, and there are no femoral pores, 
while the toes are 5—5, it may be referred to Mr. Gray’s genus Agama. It appears moreover to connect Cuvier's 
subgenera Trapelus and Calotes, having all the scales very minute, and no dorsal crest like the former, yet 
agreeing with the latter, in that the imbricated scales are slightly carinated, and terminated in point so as to 
make the body appear to the naked eye as if longitudinally sulcated. Unfortunately I have no book in the 
Hayana that will enable me to determine whether it be a described species; but the following description will 
probably make it known to those naturalists who are conversant with Reptiles. The under side of the belly and 
legs is of a dirty cream colour, becoming yellowish toward the extremity of the long tail. The under side of the 
head and breast is marbled-grey, as is the upper side of the head, and about twenty six or twenty eight trans- 
verse faint dorsal bands, which on the dirty cream-coloured ground become more conspicuous as they approach 
the extremity of the tail, Its colouring, in short, is exactly that of the grey Madrepores which it haunts, and 
into the cavities of which it retires when alarmed. The largest I have seen have been more than a foot long. 
\ Gecarcinus ruricola I have never seen farther from the sea than two leagues. It never makes its holes in 
sand, always preferring a muddy soil at some distance from the salt water. 
* Grapsus pictus inhabits an open, sandy, or rocky coast, while Gecarcinus ruricola inhabits the muddy mouths 
of rivers, or mangrove marshes in bays; hence this last species is the true Crabe des Paletuviers of the French. 
Both the species are exceedingly suspicious and active, Grapsus pictus running swiftly for shelter to the sea, 
and Gecarcinus ruricola into the holes which it forms in the mud. 
