THE LIZARDS 141 



extreme southwestern portion of the United States, 

 through Mexico and Central America. 



The Black Iguana, C. acanthura, ranges abundantly 

 through Mexico and Central America. The old lizards 

 are generally uniform jet black; some are black with 

 marblings of olive or even exhibiting reddish blotches. 

 They are surly brutes, immediately showing fight when 

 cornered, not only endeavoring to bite, but dealing ugly 

 blows with the generously-spiked tail. From painful 

 experience the writer can testify that a blow from the 

 spiny tail is capable of producing a severe laceration. 

 If an avenue of escape is open, most specimens prefer 

 flight to combat. If discovered while sunning in their 

 favorite position, on the top of a I'ock in a forest open- 

 ing, the creature hurls himself into the shrubberj^ mak- 

 ing as much noise as a frightened cow as it goes thrash- 

 ing away to a considerable distance. The species is not 

 much in the habit of ascending trees; it can, however, 

 climb fairly well. On the ground it is verj^ fleet, run- 

 ning with the body high, the tail slightly elevated. A 

 strong lizard can easily outrun a man as to speed, in- 

 variably escaping by darting into a thicket. Very young 

 specimens are uniform, bright emerald green. They 

 are persistently terrestrial, running on their hind legs 

 in kangaroo-like fashion when frightened. Observa- 

 tions made in large yards with a number of species of 

 lizards, however, have demonstrated to the writer that 

 the habit is prevalent among many of the long-bodied 

 lacertilians of both the Agamidce and the Iguanidce. 

 He has thus far noted the habit among the species of 

 ten genera. It seems probable we have here a heredi- 

 tary character, handed down from the gigantic reptiles 

 of the past, for several of those creatures, now known 

 only by the ponderous fossils imbedded under mountains 



