1835.] TERRESTRIAL AMBLYRHYNCHUS. 389 
as they can. I have frequently observed small fly-eating Jizards, 
when watching anything, nod their heads in precisely the same 
manner; but ei do not at all know for what purpose. If this 
Acabiyehynehbis is held and plagued with a stick, it will bite 
it very severely; but I caught many by the tail, and they 
never tried to bite me. If two are placed on the prounil and 
held together, they will fight, and bite each other till blood is 
drawn. 
The individuals, and they are the greater number, which in- 
habit the lower country, can scarcely taste a drop of water 
throughout the year; but they consume much of the succulent 
cactus, the branches of which are occasionally broken off by the 
wind. I several times threw a piece to two or three of them 
when together; and it was amusing enough to see them trying to 
seize and carry it away in their mouths, like so many hungry dogs 
with a bone. They eat very deliberately, but do not chew their 
food. The little birds are aware how harmless these creatures 
are: I have seen one of the thick-billed finches picking at one 
end of a piece of cactus (which is much relished by all the ani- 
mals of the lower region), whilst a lizard was eating at the other 
end; and afterwards the little bird with the utmost indifference 
hopped on the back of the reptile. 
I opened the stomachs of several, and found them full of ve- 
getable fibres and leaves of different trees, especially of an acacia. 
In the upper region they live chiefly on the acid and astringent 
berries of the guayavita, under which trees I have seen these 
lizards and the huge tortoises feeding together. To obtain the 
acacia-leaves they crawl up the low stunted trees; and it is not 
uncommon to see a pair quietly browsing, whilst seated on a 
branch several feet above the ground. These lizards, when 
cooked, yield a white meat, which is liked by those whose sto- 
machs soar above all prejudices. Tlumboldt has remarked that 
in intertropical South America, all lizards which inhabit dry 
regions are esteemed delicacies for the table. The inhabitants 
state that those which inhabit the upper damp parts drink water, 
but that the others do not, like the tortoises, travel up for it from 
the lower sterile country. At the time of our visit, the females 
had within their bodies numerous, large, elongated eggs, which 
they lay in.their burrows: the inhabitants seek them for food. 
