64 ON THE "GIL A MONSTER." 



fore him. He took none of them voluntarily, but would 

 swallow occasional offerings if they were put into his 

 mouth. Some things he would not accept on any terms, 

 they were put out of the mouth as fast as put in ; others 

 that he might be induced to swallow were held in his jaws 

 for a long time. At the end of a year the only evidence 

 of loss of flesh was to be noticed near the end of the tail, 

 where it had grown a little more thin and pointed. The 

 body had retained its plumpness, being rather more than 

 three and a half inches wide to twelve inches long, without 

 the tail. 



His only sound was a long-drawn aspirate hah, like a 

 sigh, produced by expelling the breath from the lungs. 

 If teased till out of patience, this was given out with the 

 mouth partly open, when it had all the force of a warn- 

 ing ; whether it was intended for that purpose or was 

 merely preparation for a struggle, by lessening the bulk, 

 are still to be considered. It really answered both pur- 

 poses. 



In regard to the nature of the venom and fatality of the 

 bite there is little to offer that is new. The results of the 

 experiments suggest danger for small animals but little or 

 none for larger ones. Large angle worms and insects 

 seemed to die much more quickly when bitten than when 

 cut to pieces with the scissors. 



Acquaintance with this specimen has satisfied me, how- 

 ever, that the reports of the deadly nature of the species 

 are mainly exaggerations, with little if any foundation in 

 fact. Popular opinion and for that matter its manner of 

 origin are illustrated by the following, credited to Col. A. 

 G. Tassiu, U. S. Army, in the Overland Monthly : "The 

 "Gila monster is an ugly reptile peculiar to Arizona, and 

 "as its name implies, most common along the Gila river. 

 "It is a sort of a cross between a lizard and an alligator, 



