32 VERTEBRATA. REPTILIA. 



that appeared to be omnivorous, feeding voraciously 

 on the eggs of birds, the intestines of fowls, and in- 

 sects. Though not venomous or dangerous, its bite 

 is exceedingly painful : it has great powers of en- 

 durance, sustaining easily the blows of a cudgel ; it 

 is therefore usually shot with the arrow or the gun. 

 It will take the water and swim with ease. Mr. 

 Broderip saw one enter and cross a small pond in 

 the Zoological Gardens : the forefeet were motion- 

 less during its passage. The flesh is a great delicacy, 

 but unfortunately it is somewhat unwholesome. 

 The eggs are also much esteemed. 



Some fossil remains have been discovered of an 

 enormous reptile, whose teeth were of the singular 

 form of the Iguana's, and which has been thence 

 named Iguanodon.* It was seventy feet in length, 

 and had a horn on its snout. " The gigantic Iguan- 

 odon," says Mr. Mantell, " to whom the groves 

 of palms and arborescent ferns would be mere beds 

 of reeds, must have been of such prodigious magni- 

 tude, that the existing animal creation presents us 

 with no fit objects of comparison. Imagine an 

 animal of the Lizard tribe, three or four times as 

 large as the largest Crocodile; having jaws, with teeth 

 equal in size to the incisors of the Rhinoceros ; and 

 crested with horn : such a creature must have been 

 the Iguanodon!" 



* From Iguana, and o5oij, odous, a tooth. 



