2S6 CLASS REPTILIA. 



The flesh of this iguana is eaten in the East Indies, as that 

 of the common iguana is eaten in America. The eggs are 

 likewise in great estimation. 



Under the name of Basilisk is at present designated a genus 

 of reptiles, of this saurian order, which exhibits many affini- 

 ties with the iguanas and monitors. 



No animal, perhaps, has been the subject of so great a 

 number of prejudices as the one now under consideration. 

 The most ancient authors have spoken of the basilisk, as of 

 a serpent which had the power of striking its victim dead by 

 a single glance. Others have pretended that it could not 

 exercise this faculty, unless it first perceived the object of its 

 vengeance before it was itself perceived by it. It was also most 

 absurdly imagined to proceed from the eggs of old cocks. Al- 

 drovandus, and several other writers have given figures of it. 

 They have represented it with eight feet, a crown on the 

 head, and a hooked and recurved beak. Pliny assures us 

 that the serpent named basilisk has a voice so terrible, that it 

 strikes terror into all other species, that it thus chases them 

 from the spot which it inhabits, and of which it retains the 

 sole and undisputed dominion. The name, indeed, of basi- 

 lisk, B«o-tXtx,oj, signifies royal. 



The fantastic forms, and fabulous properties thus attri- 

 buted to an animal, which most probably never had any 

 existence, rendered this name too celebrated for naturalists 

 not to endeavour to apply it to another species, which accord- 

 ingly they did. Seba has figured a species of lizard, whose 

 head is surmounted with projecting lines, and the back fur- 

 nished with a broad vertical crest, which extends as far as 

 over the tail, and which that author believed to be intended for 

 the purposes of flight. He has designated it under the name 

 of basilisk, or dragon of America, a flying amphibious animal. 

 This is the animal which has subsequently been described 

 in all works of Natural History under the name of basilisk. 



