122 SAURIANS. 



nourisliment : — I hold them by the lower part of the body with 

 one hand, and with the other I irritate them until they open their 

 mouth and attempt to bite, when I insert food ; and by annoying 

 them in this way, I have not only made them eat their natural 

 food, but I have killed some of them by forcing them to eat corn 

 and leaves, which appear to have disagreed with them. By some 

 of the natives this Iguana is said to eat Lizards and insects ; but 

 I have opened several, and I have never succeeded in finding any 

 but vegetable matter in the stomach." 



Of the habits of a kindred species of Iguana, the Cyclura lophura, 

 inhabiting Jamaica, Mr. Gosse has given an elaborate description ; 

 and he tells us that the gular pouch in the IguanidcB " is exten- 

 sible, but not inflatable,^' as is the current opinion. Holbrook and 

 others have remarked the same ; and Professor Thomas Bell 

 describes the fold of skin as being drawn down by a peculiar 

 arrangement of the lingual bone, and a singular cartilage fixed to 

 it and attached also to the skin. These parts are moved by deli- 

 cate muscles, so that, when the cartilage is drawn down, the skin 

 of course is distended, and follows it " in the same way that the 

 silk is stretched over the whalebone of an umbrella." " In fact 

 the skin," writes Professor Holbrook, " when distended in life by 

 the animal, does not resemble the inflated vocal sacs of the Frogs 

 and Toads, which are round, but looks^ like a fold of the skin, 

 pinched and drawn down, the two portions of it being in contact, 

 like a dewlap." It appears that the Cyclura, also, is exclusively 

 herbivorous ; and Mr. Gosse remarks upon the severe wounds 

 which it inflicts upon Dogs with its sharply-serrated tail. In 

 general, the larger species of this family are solely vegetable- 

 feeders, while the smaller kinds (such as the Ancles) are more or 

 less insectivorous ; and there are some, of intermediate size, which 

 even prey occasionally upon the kindred Anoles and other small, 

 animals. The genera of these reptiles are exceedingly numerous, 

 as we have seen, and amongst so many there must be considerable 

 variety in the habits ; but we can only notice a very few of them. 

 Within the limited area of the small archipelago of the GaUapagos, 

 situate on the equator about ten degrees west of South America, 

 there are two remarkable species of Iguanidm, of which the habits 

 have been described and commented upon by Mr. Darwin in his 



