IGUANAS. I I 5 



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 nostril. 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 



