ON THE " GILA MONSTER." 61 



head was raised and, licking the lips and yawning to dis- 

 close the inky blackness inside the mouth, preparations 

 were begun on a sleeping place. Shortly afterward an egg 

 Avas broken into a dish and placed within reach ; it was 

 taken with evident relish, in the same manner as the wa- 

 ter ; the chin was dipped into it and the tongue thrust out, 

 bent downward and drawn back again. The tongue is 

 thick and riband-shaped, i. e. , long, narrow and somewhat 

 depressed. In protrusion it first makes its appearance as 

 a single sharp point ; as it comes farther out the tip sepa- 

 rates into two points, and the organ is seen to be forked 

 for a short distance. When fully protruded, the aspect 

 is changed and the outline of the extremity, as seen from 

 above, resembles that of the tail of a shad. As the tongue 

 is drawn in, the tips approach each other till once more 

 closely applied. Thus, the forked portion moves side wise 

 like the blades of a pair of scissors as the tongue goes out 

 and back. Any of the fluid that adhered was carried into 

 the mouth by the retraction, and no doubt the tongue was 

 followed by a slight current induced by suction that took 

 in a little more ; the amount of suction, however, must have 

 been very slight, judging from the time occupied in eat- 

 ing a sifcgle egg. On each of four days one egg was con- 

 sumed ; then followed a week of fasting, the most of which 

 was cloudy weather. Readiness to feed depended greatly 

 on the temperature and brightness of the day : in conse- 

 quence the meals were quite irregular. 



On the bottom of the box there were some inches of 

 sand with several rocks ; under the side of one of the lat- 

 ter the burrow was made. The digging was all done with 

 the hands ; beginning with the left the sand was thrown 

 back with some force in slow strokes, about thirty to the 

 minute, then the right was used in the same way. The 

 motions were outward or lateral, not vertical like those of 



