ORDER SAURIA. . 9,%5 



The slate-coloured Iguana, Ig. cerulia is but three feet 

 in length. It inhabits the same places as the former species, 

 and may, as our author thinks^ be merely a variety of it, in 

 age or sex. Seba derives it from the Island of Formosa. 



The horned Iguana of St. Domingo is about four feet 

 long. It is frequently found in the hills of St. Domingo, 

 between Artibonite and GonaYves. It lives on fruits, insects, 

 and small birds, which it seizes with marvellous agility, and 

 during the day it couches on trees and rocks to watch for its 

 prey. During the night, and the entire season of the great 

 heats, it retires into the hollows of rocks, or into the holes of 

 old trees, and it passes about five or six months of the year 

 there in a state of lethargy. 



This reptile is considered by the negroes as a delicious 

 meat, and is accordingly sought after by them with great 

 avidity. According to the report of the colonists, its 

 flesh resembles in flavour that of the roebuck, and the 

 maroon dogs make great slaughter among these reptiles. 

 The colours of this iguana are not precisely known. M. de 

 Lacepede was the first to describe it at the end of his Natural 

 History of Serpents, and Bonaterre subsequently gave a good 

 figure of it in the Dictionary of Erpetology, in the " Ency- 

 clopedie Methodique." 



Some authors place here the iguana fasciata. Its colour 

 is deep blue, with transverse bands of a clearer tint. The 

 goitre is moderate, and not denticulated. There is no large 

 scale at the angle of the jaw. 



This iguana belongs to the island of Java. It may pro- 

 bably be the reptile which Bontius has named cameleon. It 

 is also probable, that to this species must be referred the very 

 large iguanas which are found at Batavia, and which are 

 sometimes as thick as a man's thigh. In his voyage with 

 Captain Cook, Sir Joseph Bankes killed one of these, which 

 was five feet in length. 



VOL, IX. a 



