138 ISLES OF SUMMER. 



the same figure and conformation nearly (tliougli not "wholly) 

 prevailing in each. The iguana is one of the intermediate species, 

 and is usually about three feet long, and proportionally bulky. 

 It lives chiefly among fruit trees, and is perfectly gentle and in- 

 noxious." He says they had then ''become generally scarce," 

 except in places seldom visited by man. Also that " the English, 

 even when they were more plentiful, did not often serve them 

 at elegant tables, but their French and Spa,nish neighbors, less 

 squeamish, still devour them with exquisite relish." Also that 

 a lady "of great beauty and elegance," assured him, from her 

 own experience, that they are " equal in flavor and wholesomeness 

 to the finest green turtle." That ''P. Labat likewise speaks of 

 a fricasseed guana with high approbation. He compares it to a 

 chicken for the whiteness of its flesh and the delicaoy of its flavor." 

 He quotes from the work of this ''good father," (Tom iii, p. 

 316,) his description of the novel mode then in vogue of captur- 

 ing this species of game. "We were attended," he says, "by a 

 negro, who carried a long rod, at one end of which was a piece 

 of whip cord with a running knot. After beating the bushes for 

 some time, the negro discovered our game basking in the sun on 

 a dry limb of a tree. Hereupon he began whistling with all his 

 might, to which the guana was wonderfully attentive, stretching 

 out his neck and turning his head, as if to enjoy it more fully. 

 The negro now approached, still whistling, and advancing his 

 rod gently, began tickling with the end of it the sides and throat 

 of the guana, who seemed mightily pleased witli the operation, 

 for he turned on his back, and stretched out like a cat before the 

 fire, and at length fairly fell aslee'p, which the negro perceiving, 

 dexterously slipt the noose over his head, and with a jerk brought 

 him to the ground; and good sport it afforded to see the creature 

 swell like a turkey-cock at finding himself entrapped. We caught 

 others in the same way, and kept one of them alive seven or eight 



