118 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 
food. Humboldt has remarked, that in intertropical South America, 
all Lizards which inhabit ary regions are esteemed as delicacies for 
the table. The inhabitants of the Gallapagos say that those in- 
habiting the damp region drink water, but that the others do not 
travel up for it from the sterile country, like the gigantic Land Tor- 
toises. At the time of our visit the females had within their bodies 
numerous large elongated eggs. These they lay in their burrows, and 
the inhabitants seek them for food.” 
These two curious Lizards of the Gallapagos agree nearly in 
general structure, and in many of their habits ; and neither of them 
has that rapidity of movement which is characteristic of various other 
lIeuanide. ‘The form of the head resembles a good deal that of a 
Land Tortoise, and we find the same form of head, and again the 
same disinclination to bite, in certain herbivorous Lizards, such as 
the Uromastyx and kindred forms, which are referred by Dr. Gray to 
the corresponding Old World family of Agamide.| 
In the family of Iguanas the Basilisk may be noted. According 
to ancient authors, reproduced by writers of the Middle Ages, the 
Basilisk, although such a small animal, could produce instant death 
by its sting. The man whose eyes met theirs was supposed to be at 
once devoured by an intense fire. Such are the fabulous ideas which 
tradition has transmitted to us about these animals. It is to be re- 
marked, however, that the Basilisk of modern herpetology is not the 
BagiAoxds, or royal serpent, of the ancients, the cockatrice of Scrip- 
‘ture. The Reptile which now bears the name is an inoffensive animal, 
living in the forests of Guiana, Martinique, and Mexico, and leaping 
from branch to branch, in order to gather the seeds or seize the 
insects on which it feeds. 
The Basilisk is distinguished from the other iguanian Lizards by 
the absence of the long and dilatable skin under the throat, and by 
the presence of an elevated crest which runs along the whole length 
of the back and tail. 
The Hooded Basilisk (B. Americanus, Fig. 28) measures seven or 
eight inches from the nose to origin of the tail, which is itself nearly 
three times as long, being nineteen or twenty inches inlength. Upon 
the occiput it has a sort of horn or bag, in shape like a hood, round 
at the summit and slightly inclined towards the neck. ‘This bag, 
when distended, is about the size of a pullet’s egg. In the male the 
back and tail are surmounted by a raised crest, such as we have de- 
scribed above, sustained in its thickness by the knotty process of the 
vertebree. The general colour is a mixture of sandy brown, slightly 
marbled on the back and sides, with shades of blue on the upper part, 
