112 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



remain for hours on the same spot, as fixed in attitude 

 as if they were plaster ornaments. As evening ap- 

 proaches they become more active ; they commence 

 to wander about catching flies and mosquitoes. Once 

 I watched a lizard so engaged. It was near sunset, and 

 in the rainy season. I was sitting in the drawing-room, 

 waiting till it should be cool enough for me to take my 

 evening drive. While thus sitting I happened to raise 

 my eyes, and saw a large grasshopper high up on the 

 wall. He was of the kind that fly as well as hop. He 

 had somehow entered the house and alighted on the 

 wall. He was there sitting perfectly motionless. On 

 the same wall, about twenty feet distant, and equally 

 motionless, I also noticed a lizard. 



In a minute or so, as I continued looking, the lizard 

 commenced to move, at first very slowly, then slightly 

 faster. Next he broke into a run, and ran with con- 

 siderable rapidity for about ten feet in the direction 

 of the grasshopper. He now stopped, and remained 

 motionless again for some minutes ; then he re- 

 commenced his advance, but now with extreme 

 slowness and many pauses, much in the manner that 

 a cat moves when stalking a bird. The head of the 

 grasshopper was turned in the opposite direction. He 

 did not consequently see the lizard, nor did he ap- 

 parently seem to be the least aware of his approach. 



In about ten minutes, always coming on in the same 

 stealthy manner, the lizard had arrived within the 

 distance of a foot from the grasshopper. Here he 

 paused, then made a dart forward ; the long tongue was 

 shot out, drawn back, and the poor grasshopper had 



