IGUANA AND IGUANODON 



of life ; but vegetarianism in reptiles is not at all common. 

 The crests along the back and the general attitude of the 

 iguana, evidently suggested to the late Mr. Waterhouse 

 Hawkins the pose for the Iguanodon in the grounds of 

 the Crystal Palace. That extinct creature an idea of 

 which can be better gained by an inspection of a plaster 

 cast, now on view in the Natural History Museum at 

 South Kensington, of one of the magnificent Bernissart 

 iguanodons in the Museum at Brussels was named 

 by a certain likeness which its teeth show to that of the 

 iguana, a likeness very possibly to be accounted for by 

 the fact that both are, or were, vegetable -feeding reptiles. 

 However, our iguana has nothing whatever to do with 

 its semi-namesake. It is a true lizard and not a Dinosaur 

 as is the Iguanodon. This lizard grows to several feet 

 in length, of which the tail forms a considerable propor- 

 tion. Being a plant eater, its flesh is succulent and 

 sought after, and is said to taste like chicken. It is 

 hunted with dogs, before whose keen noses the protec- 

 tive colours of the iguana are useless to it. The common 

 iguana occasionally varies from the typical appearance, 

 and some of the scales upon the nose grow out into horny 

 excrescences. " Rhinolopha " is the appropriate name 

 given to this variety which is, however, not a variety in 

 the sense that is it a distinct form unconnected by inter- 

 mediate grades with the typical Iguana tuber culata. 

 Every intermediate condition occurs, and thus we see 

 that there can be no question of two species. The 

 iguana of Santa Lucia in the West Indies (referred to a 

 different genus) grows to five or six feet in length, and 

 appears to be of a brighter green when young than when 

 full grown, a fact which is in accord with the greater need 

 for protection of the young against their many foes. 

 The full grown iguana is by no means an easy prey to 

 those creatures which attack it, and the late Mr. P. H. 

 Gosse observed of it that it " directs its eye to the object 



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