182 



ZOOLOGY. 



[PART II. 



CHAP. HE. 



EEPTILES. 



LIZARDS. Iguana. One of the earliest if not the 

 first remarkable animal to startle a stranger on arriving 

 in Ceylon, whilst wending his way from Point-de- 

 Galle to Colombo, is a huge lizard of from four to 

 five feet in length, the Talla-goya of the Singhalese, and 

 Iguana l of the Europeans. It may be seen at noonday 

 searching for ants and insects in the middle of the 

 highway and along the fences ; when, disturbed but by 

 no means alarmed, by the approach of man, it moves 

 off to a safe distance ; and, the intrusion being at an 

 end, it returns again to the occupation in which it had 

 been interrupted. Eepulsive as it is in appearance, it 

 is perfectly harmless, and is hunted down by dogs 

 in the maritime provinces, where its delicate flesh is 

 converted into curry, and its skin into shoes. When 

 seized, it has the power of inflicting a smart blow with 

 its tail. The Talla-goya lives in almost any convenient 

 hollow, such as a hole -in the ground, or the deserted 

 nest of the termites ; and some small ones which fre- 

 quented my garden at Colombo, made their retreat in 

 the heart of a decayed tree. A still larger species, the 

 Kabragoya 2 , is partial to marshy ground, and when dis- 

 turbed upon land, will take refuge in the nearest water. 

 From the somewhat eruptive appearance of the yellow 

 blotches on its scales, a closely allied species, similarly 



1 Monitor dracsena, Linn. Among 

 the barbarous nostrums of the un- 

 educated natives, both Singhalese and 

 Tamil, is the tongue of the iguana, 



which they regard as a specific for 



consumption, if plucked from the 



living animal and swallowed whole. 



2 Hydrosaurus salvator, Wagler. 



