REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD. 23T 



than those of the domestic pigeon, are pronounced by- 

 Sir Robert Schomburgk and others to be delicious. 

 These are deserving the attention of gourmands. One 

 of these lizards will sometimes contain as many as four 

 score eggs, about the size of a pigeon's egg, but with 

 soft shells, which when , boiled are like marrow. It. 

 would he a refreshing sight to see some civic dignitary 

 who has gone the round of all the dishes which native 

 and foreign skill have been able to produce, partaking 

 for the first time of a dish of lizard's eggs garnished 

 with anchovies. 



The incessant destruction of the iguanas, for the sake 

 of their flesh, has rendered them very scarce, if not alto 

 gether extinct in localities where they were once abun- 

 dant. They were formerly so common on the Bahamas 

 Islands, that Catesby tells us they furnished a great part 

 of the subsistence of the inhabitants. They used to put 

 them into the holds of the sloops and carry them alive 

 for sale to Carolina, or salt and barrel them up for the 

 use of their families at home. Browne, in his " Natural 

 History of Jamaica," says, " The flesh of this creature 

 is Irked by many people, and frequently served up in 

 fricassees, at their tables, in which state it is often pre- 

 ferred to the best fowls." 



Iguanas are eaten in Brazil and Trinidad ; indeed, we 

 find these reptiles are eagerly hunted for food by the 

 natives alike of Africa, Australia, America, and Asia. 



Iguanas are very large and plentiful in the Bahamas 

 group ; they are hunted with a small kind of hound, 

 and if taken alive, the mouth is sewed up with twine 

 and they keep alive a month or six weeks without food. 

 Nassau the capital is chiefly supplied with the iguana 

 from the Berry Islands. This reptile is reported to be 

 particularly plentiful in the Island of St. Vincent, and 

 one was measured nearly ten feet from nose tip to tail 

 end, the body being nearly as thick as that of a man. 

 They do not usually, however, attain such dimensions. 

 This lizard subsists on vegetables, earth-worms, and 

 insects. 



