316 THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



monitory cry, although occasions were not wanting when it 

 might have been of service. 



The large Water-lizards {Hydrosauri) frequent the low 

 river banks or the margins of springs, and although they may 

 be seen basking on rocks or on the dead trunk of some 

 prostrate tree in the heat of the sun, yet they appear more 

 partial to the damp weeds and undergrowth in the neighbour- 

 hood of water. Their gait has somewhat more of the awkward 

 lateral motion of the crocodile than of the lively action of 

 the smaller saurians. When attacked, they lash violently 

 with their tail, swaying it sideways with great force like the 

 cayman. These modern types of the Ichthyosaurus have a 

 graceful habit of extending the neck, and raising the head to 

 look about them, and as you follow them leisurely over the 

 rocks, or through the jungle, they frequently stop, turn their 

 heads round, and take a deliberate survey of the intruder. 

 Xhey are by no means vicious, though they bite severely when 

 provoked, acting, however, always on the defensive. On ex- 

 amining their stomachs, crabs, locusts, beetles, the remains of 

 jumping fish, the scales of snakes, and bones of frogs and other 

 small animals are discovered. Like that of the Iguanas, their 

 flesh is delicate eating, resembling that of a very young 

 sucking-pig. Mr. Adams gives us an amusing description of 

 his contests with a gigantic Water-lizard {Hydrosaura 

 giganteus) : ' Throwing myself on him, I wounded him with a 

 clasp knife in the tail, but he managed to elude my grasp, and 

 made for the woods. I succeeded, however, in tracking his 

 retreating form, on hands and knees, through a low covered 

 labyrinth in the dense undergrowth, until I saw him extended 

 on a log ; when, leaving the jungle, I called my servant, a 

 marine, who was shooting specimens for me, and pointing out 

 the couchant animal, desired him to shoot him in the neck, as 

 I did not wish the head to be injured, which he accordingly 

 did. Entering the jungle, I then closed with the wounded 

 saurian, and seizing him by the throat, bore him in triumph to 

 our quarters. Here he soon recovered ; and hoping to preserve 

 him alive to study his habits, I placed him in a Malay wicker 

 hen-coop. As we were sitting, however, at dinner, the black 

 cook, with great alarm depicted in his features, reported that 

 ' Alligator got out his cage ! ' Seizing the carving knife, I 



