494 Zoological Society. 



pieces of stone. The nets are sunk in deep water, from 80 to ir>0 

 feet, well out at sea. They are put in one day and taken out the 

 next ; so that they are down two or three times a week, according to 

 the state of the weather and success of the fishing. The lesser sharks 

 are commonly found dead, the larger ones much exhausted. On 

 being taken home, the back fins, the only ones used, are cut off, and 

 dried on the sands in the sun ; the flesh is cut off in long strips, and 

 salted for food ; the hver is taken out, and boiled down for oil ; the 

 head, bones and intestines left on the shore to rot, or thrown into the 

 sea, where numberless little sharks are generally on the watch to eat 

 up the remaius of their kindred. 



The fishermen themselves are only concerned in the capture of the 

 Sharks. So soon as they are landed, they are purchased up by 

 Banians, on whose account all the other operations are performed. 

 The Banians collect them in quantities, and transmit them to agents 

 in Bombay, by whom they are sold for shipment to China. 



2. On the Iguana of S''"* Lucia, Metopoceros cornutus 

 OF Wagler. By Lieut. Tyler, R.E. 

 This species attains a length of five, and sometimes even of six feet, 

 the tail being about twice and three-quarters the length of the body. 

 When first hatched it measures four inches. The tail is thick at its 

 commencement, and is so connected with the body that it becomes 

 difficult to define precisely their respective limits. The fore and 

 hind legs are thick and muscular, with five toes on each, armed with 

 strong hooked talons, by any one of which the animal can support 

 itself. Of the fore-legs the third and fourth toes are the longest ; 

 and of the hind-legs the fourth toe is of an enormous length, and has 

 five joints. Under the toes the scales form a double row of denticu- 

 lations. The nostrils are large, oval, and not mobile, and above them 

 are two horns, with five or six tuberculous excrescences between them 

 and the nostrils, and surrounding the horns. The mouth is large, 

 and armed with two rows of maxillary and two of palatal teeth, which 

 appear simply to be intended to crop leaves and to provide the sto- 

 mach with vegetable food. Each maxillary tooth is a little double- 

 edged saw, and they are so lapped over each other that the reptile, 

 in closing its mouth upon a leaf, cuts through it completely. The 

 tongue is divided at the point, is very wide, and can be extended out 

 of the mouth, although it is fastened to the interior of the lower jaw 

 near its extremity. The tongue is curiously used by the animal to 

 draw food into the mouth, and to forward it down the gullet, or to 

 repel it at will, and the only use of the palatal teeth appears to be to 

 secure the food while the tongue moves forward to afford fresh assist- 

 ance in its journey down the throat*. Between the lower jaw and 

 the chest is a pouch, which the animal draws in or extends simulta- 

 neously with the compression or swelling out of the body when en- 

 raged or excited. The portion of the gular pouch attached to the 

 jaw is inflatable, and food is sometimes retained in it for a consider- 



* The tongue is always covered by a glutinous secretion, which is perceptibly 

 appended to the jaws when the mouth is open. 



