504 M.F.Sumichrast on the Habits of some Mexican Reptiles. 
in large holes dug in the sand. A single excavation sometimes 
contains as many as ten dozen of these eggs, deposited in it by 
several females. The same thing is observed in the Cyclura, 
with this difference, that the number of eggs thus deposited in 
a common hatching-place does not exceed six or seven dozen. 
When taken young, the Iguana is easily tamed, and becomes 
perfectly familiar with the person who takes care of it; the 
adults, on the contrary, never lose in captivity their natural 
wildness. These animals endure a long abstinence without any 
sensible diminution in weight; in many places, the natives, 
taking advantage of this peculiarity, keep the Iguanas as provi- 
sion for Lent for more than a month, after having sewn up the 
mouth and attached the feet. 
The green Iguana does not seem to dread the vicinity of the 
alligators (A. ducius, Cuvier) which usually abound on the shores 
which it prefers for its habitation. The black Iguana, on the 
contrary, appears to have much fear of them. In one of my 
expeditions on the Rio Chicapa, I took one alive, and attached 
it to the prow of the canoe; the animal, having succeeded in 
freeing itself from its bonds, immediately threw itself into the 
water, in order to gain the shore; but, at the moment of its 
arrival, perceiving an alligator stretched in the sun on a small 
sandy beach, it returned towards the boat with signs of the 
most lively fear. On this same occasion I had most striking 
ocular proof of the tenacity of life and the muscular power of 
the Iguanas. Several of those which I shot, although literally 
riddled with large shot, still retained sufficient strength to run 
to the river and plunge into it, after having tumbled down from 
the tops of the trees on which they were stretched in the sun, 
a height of twenty or thirty feet. 
Genus Bastuiscus, Latreille. 
Basiliscus vittatus, Wiegm. 
‘Pasarios’ of the Mexicans. ‘Zumbichi’ of the Zapotecs. 
This charming animal, which does not in any way resemble 
in its habits the fabulous creature to which the ancients gave 
the name of Basilisk, is common on the margins of nearly all 
the rivers of the warm and temperate regions of Mexico. It is 
in the spring, in the breeding-season, that its observation is 
most easy; and it is then also that the male especially attracts 
attention, on account of the elegance of his form, the vivacity of 
his colours, and the grace of his movements. As soon as the 
sun has warmed the air, he quits his nocturnal retreat, and 
commences the pursuit of his prey. If the dry trunk of a tree 
rises from the margin of the water, we may be almost certain of 
Se ees 
: 
Z 
< 
