M. F. Sumichrast on the Habits of some Mexican Reptiles. 503 



blows of a machete (a kind of sword) suffice to do the business ; 

 in the opposite case, the Indian, with the patience characteristic 

 of his race, will endeavour to gain possession of the unwilling 

 animal by drawing it out gradually by the end of its tail. When 

 once seized by the neck, the unfortunate Cyclura undergoes an 

 operation which must deprive it of all power of resistance or 

 hope of flight. With the point of a knife, the hunter cuts the 

 skin of its cheeks along the upper jaw, and passes through this 

 aperture the slender and flexible twig of a liana, which he then 

 unites firmly beneath the chin, so as to prevent any movement 

 of the lower jaw. This done, he half pulls off the last joint of 

 the toes on both the fore feet, attaches one to the other by 

 means of the tendon which is thus laid bare, and passes them 

 behind the head. The same operation is repeated with the hind 

 feet, which are also crossed upon the back. Thus garotted, the 

 animal is unable to bite, scratch, or make its escape. 



The IguaruB are also hunted either by the assistance of dogs 

 trained to their pursuit, or by placing at the entrance of the 

 holes into which they retire running loops attached to the 

 flexible branch of a tree, which seize the animal by its neck as 

 it issues from its burrow. 



In the western part of the isthmus of Tehuantepec, where I 

 collected most of the facts detailed in these notes, only the eggs 

 of the green Iguana are sought as food ; the hunters, therefore, 

 never capture the males of this species, to which they give the 

 name of Garobos. The flesh of the Cyclura, on the contrary, is 

 regarded as an excellent dish, and its eggs are much prized by 

 the native gourmands. These eggs are nearly of the same size 

 and form as those of the /. rhinolopha ; their greatest diameter 

 is about an inch and a quarter, and their smaller diameter four- 

 fifths of an inch. In several females of the Cyclura which I 

 dissected between the 15th and 20th of March, I found from 

 thirty-two to thirty-four eggs, completely developed and placed 

 end to end in the double oviduct which descends from the ovary 

 to the cloaca. The ovary contained, besides, a nearly equal 

 number of other eggs in a less advanced state ; some of these 

 were of an orange-yellow colour and of a flattened ellipsoidal 

 form, presenting a lenticular inflation at the centre ; others were 

 spherical, larger, and transparent, like those of frogs. 



During a voyage upon the river Goazacoalcos, I witnessed a 

 singular operation performed upon a female Iguana. One of the 

 Indians who had the management of the canoe, having succeeded 

 in capturing this reptile, opened its belly, carefully removed the 

 eggs, and having sewn up the wound, let the animal go, " in the 

 hope," as he said, "of finding it again some day." At the 

 middle of March the green Iguanas begin depositing their eggs, 



