ON THE "GIL A MONSTER" (Hdoderma suspectum), 



BY S. GARMAN. 



LATE in May, 1889, through the kindness of Miss Mary 

 Woodman, the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cam- 

 bridge, Mass., came into possession of an unusually hand- 

 some specimen of the "Gila monster," one of the largest 

 of the lizards and the only one reputed venomous. He 

 had been secured at Casa Grande, Arizona, by Mr. Dan- 

 iel H. Bacon and forwarded in "such a manner as to reach 

 us little the worse for the handling and the change of cli- 

 mate. His arrival in good health and in the warm season 

 gave opportunity for taking a number of notes that may 

 add something to what is already known concerning the 

 species. For more than a year he was kept alive and un- 

 der observation. Animals that have been brought any 

 distance usually arrive very thirsty, and the first move 

 toward domesticating them is made in giving them water. 

 Heloderma was no exception. In an arid dwelling place 

 such as his, four or five days, the length of the journey, 

 would not be expected to prove a very long time between 

 drinks, but he drank as if nearly famished. A stupid and 

 impassive appearance did not prevent such manifestation 

 of intense enjoyment as made it a pleasure to watch the 

 slow process of satisfying what, for the time, was the 

 greatest desire of the creature's existence. More than 

 half an hour elapsed from the time the snout was -brought 

 down to the liquid and the tongue thrust into it until the 

 (60) 



