COMMON GUANA. 201 



mouths, to prevent their biting, and put them 

 into the hold of their sloop till they have catched 

 a sufficient number, which they either carry alive 

 for sale to Carolina, or salt and barrel up for the 

 use of their families at home. These Guanas feed 

 wholly on vegetables and fruit, particularly on a 

 kind of fungus growing at the roots of trees, and 

 on the fruits of the different kinds of Annonas. 

 Their flesh is easy of digestion, delicate, and well- 

 tasted : they are sometimes roasted, but the more 

 common way is to boil them, taking out the leaves 

 of fat, which are melted and clarified, and put 

 into a calabash or dish, into which they dip the 

 flesh of the Guana as they eat it. It is remark- 

 able that this fat, which adheres to the inside of 

 the abdomen, imbibes the colour of the fruit the 

 animal eats last, which I have frequently seen 

 tinged of a pale red, yellow, or sometimes of a 

 purple colour, which last was from eating the 

 Prunus maritima, which fruit, at the same time, I 

 took out of them. Though they are not amphibious, 

 they are said to keep under water above an hour. 

 When they swim, they use not their feet, but clap 

 them close to their body, and guide themselves 

 with their tails : they swallow all they eat whole. 

 They cannot run fast, their holes being a greater 

 security to them than their heels. They are so 

 impatient of cold, that they rarely appear out of 

 their holes but when the sun shines." 



"The Guana," says Browne, in his Natural 

 History of Jamaica, " like most of the tribe, lives 

 a very considerable time without food, and changes 



