IGUANAS. 115 
thinking thus to kill it directly ; but when, an hour afterwards, he 
drew up the line, the lizard was quite active. Their limbs and 
strong claws are admirably adapted for crawling over the rugged 
and fissured masses of lava which everywhere there form the coast. 
In such situations, a group of six or seven of these ugly reptiles may 
oftentimes be seen on the black rocks, a few feet above the surf, 
basking in the sun with outstretched legs. I opened the stomachs 
of several,” continues Mr. Darwin, “and in each case found it largely 
distended with minced sea-weed of that kind which grows in thin 
foliaceous expansions of a bright green or dull red colour. I do not 
recollect having observed this sea-weed in any quantity on the 
tidal rocks; and I have reason to believe that it grows at the 
bottom of the sea, at some little distance from the coast. If such 
is the case, the object of these animals occasionally going out to 
sea is explained. The stomach contained nothing but the sea-weed. 
Mr. Bynoe, however, found a piece of a crab in one; but this might 
have got in accidentally. The intestines were large, as in other 
herbivorous animals.” 
The food of this Lizard, equally with its compressed form of tail, 
and the certain fact of its having been seen voluntarily swimming 
out at sea, absolutely prove its aquatic habits; nevertheless, as we 
are told by Mr. Darwin, “there is in this respect one strange 
anomaly, namely, that when frightened it will not enter the water. 
From this cause, it is easy to drive these lizards down to any little 
point overhanging the sea, where they will sooner allow a person to 
catch hold of their tail than jump into the water. They do not 
seem to have any notion of biting; but when much frightened 
they squirt a drop of fluid from each nostri. One day I carried one 
to a deep pool left by the retiring tide, and threw it in several times 
as far as I was able. It invariably returned in a direct line to the 
spot where I stood. It swam near the bottom, with a very graceful 
and rapid movement, and occasionally aided itself over the uneven 
ground with its feet. As soon as it arrived near the margin, but 
still being under the water, it either tried to conceal itself in the 
tufts of sea-weed, or it entered some crevice. When it thought the 
danger was passed, it crawled out on the dry rocks, and shuffled 
away as quickly as it could. I several times caught this same 
lizard by driving it down to a point, and, though possessed of such 
perfect powers of diving and swimming, nothing would induce it to 
enter the water; and as often as I threw it in it returned in the 
manner above described. Perhaps this singular piece of apparent 
stupidity may be accounted for by the circumstance that this Reptile 
