THE HABITS OF LIZARDS 



there was every possibility of my company being most 

 unceremoniously dispensed with by the enraged tenants 

 of the hotel. The entomologist unused to collecting in 

 countries that abound with these active little animals, 

 is sometimes treated to a sight the reverse of pleasing ; 

 on his returning to the tray or board that he has for a 

 short time left filled with beautiful butterflies, all pimied 

 out to dry, he finds only the pins, the lizards having 

 eaten up the already captured iasects. 



The power possessed by many lizards of changing 

 colour, particularly by the iguanas, that pass much of 

 their time in trees, is only known to those who have 

 made these animals a study; they do not vary their 

 colour perhaps so much as the well-known chameleon, 

 but the change from the most lovely bright green to 

 the dull wood-brown, is of frequent and almost constant 

 occurrence, depending probably upon the altered situation 

 from the green leaves to the branches or trunk of the 

 trees upon which they feed. The large lizards, called 

 iguanas, of South America, feed principally upon fruits 

 and vegetable substances. They occasionally do much 

 damage to the plantations, and are particularly fond of 

 the kitchen-garden, committing great havoc among the 

 much-prized vegetables grown for the table. In some 

 instances during their visits they have so completely 

 eaten up every particle of green food, that what appeared 

 the day before a well-stocked garden, looks the next like 

 a scrubby stubble field, every vestige of the green growing 

 crop having been eaten by the iguanas. These animals, 

 however, are much sought for as an article of food, and in 

 their turn repay for the damage they occasionally commit. 

 Their flesh, excellent in flavour, highly nutritious and 

 wholesome, is cooked in various ways, being either broiled, 

 boiled, roasted, or made into soup. 



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