90 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



bush, and among rocks, often far from water. When 

 alarmed, it either takes refuge in a tree, or in some hole 

 or cranny of the rocks. It is a very nimble climber, but 

 its pace on the ground is slow a kind of shuffling run. 

 Though when brought to bay it makes a great demon- 

 stration, hissing loudly and darting its long forked tongue 

 in and out of its widely opened mouth, while saliva flows 

 freely from its jaws, it seems to have no real capacity 

 for resistance. None of the many I have seen killed by 

 dogs made any attempt either to bite or to spit. I have 

 heard natives say that the saliva is poisonous, but never 

 noticed anything to confirm this. 



The tree iguana lives on insects of various kinds, birds' 

 and snakes' eggs, the young of the former, possibly the 

 newly born of some of the small mammals, and carrion. 

 I caught one in a cage trap baited with a dead mouse 

 which, however, he had not eaten. He subsequently 

 refused all food while in captivity for a long time. These 

 lizards attack young chickens nearly, if not quite, as 

 determinedly as their cousins of the last described species, 

 and fowls act in the presence of both much as they do 

 when threatened by a snake. 



Besides the large types mentioned above, South Africa 

 contains a large number of different types of small 

 lizards, and chameleons. Many of these lizards are 

 beautifully coloured and marked, and they are of all 

 sizes, from only a few inches, to over a foot in length. 

 Lizards feed mainly on flies and other insects, and do a 

 great deal of good. It should be borne in mind that all 

 known south African lizards are perfectly harmless to 

 man, and they should never be wantonly killed. It is 

 extraordinary, however, with what suspicion many tribes 

 of east coast natives regard them. Nothing will shake 

 their conviction that one and all can and will bite, 



