ON THE ‘“GILA MONSTER.” 
By Proressor S. GARMAN. 
Late in May, 1889, through the kindness of 
Miss Mary Woodman, the Museum of Com- 
parative Zodlogy at Cambridge, Mass., came 
into possession of an unusually handsome 
specimen of the ‘Gila monster,” one of the 
largest of the lizards and the only one reputed 
venomous. He had been secured at Casa 
Grande, Arizona, by Mr. Daniel H. Bacon and 
forwarded in such a manner as to reach us lit- 
tle the worse for the handling and the change 
of climate. His arrival in good health and in 
the warm season gave opportunity for taking a 
number of notes that may add something to 
what is already known concerning the species. 
For more than a year he was kept alive and 
under observation. Animals that have been 
brought any distance usually arrive very 
thirsty, and the first move toward domesticat- 
ing them is made in giving them water. Hel- 
oderma was no exception. In an arid dwelling 
place such as his, four or five days, the length 
of the journey, would not be expected to prove 
a very long time between drinks, but he drank 
as if nearly famished. A stupid and impassive 
appearance did not prevent such manifestation 
of intense enjoyment as made it a pleasure to 
watch the slow process of satisfying what, for 
the time, was the greatest desire of the crea- 
ture’s existence. More than half an hour 
elapsed from the time the snout was brought 
down to the liquid and the tongue thrust into it 
until the head was raised and, licking the lips 
and yawning to disclose the inky blackness in- 
side the mouth, preparations were begun on a 
sleeping place. Shortly afterward an egg was 
broken into a dish and placed within reach ; it 
was taken with evident relish, in the same 
manner as the water ; the chin was dipped into 
it and the tongue thrust out, bent downward 
and drawn back again. The tongue is thick 
and riband-shaped, 7. ¢., long, narrow and 
somewhat depressed. In protrusion it first 
makes its appearance as a single sharp point ; 
as it comes farther out the tip separates into 
two points, and the organ is seen to be forked 
for a short distance. When fully protruded, 
the aspect is changed and the outline of the 
extremity, as seen from above, resembles that 
of the tail ofa shad. As the tongue is drawn 
in, the tips approach each other till once more 
closely applied. Thus, the forked portion 
moves sidewise like the blades of a pair of 
scissors as the tongue goes out and back. Any 
of the fluid that adhered was carried into the 
mouth by the retraction, and no doubt the 
tongue was followed by a slight current induced 
by suction that took in a little more; the 
amount of suction, however, must have been 
very slight, judging from the time occupied in 
eating a single egg. On each of four days one 
egg was consumed ; then followed a week of 
fasting, the most of which was cloudy weather. 
Readiness to feed depended greatly on the 
temperature and brightness of the day ; in con- 
sequence the meals were quite irregular. 
On the bottom of the box there were some 
inches of sand with several rocks; under the 
side of one of the latter the burrow was made. 
The digging was all done with the hands ; be- 
ginning with the left the sand was thrown back 
with some force in slow strokes, about thirty to 
the minute, then the right was used in the 
same way. The motions were outward or 
lateral, not vertical like those of adog. Fora 
while the sand was dug out directly, until it 
began to pour back ; then a position was taken 
up on the top of the heap that had been made, 
and it was thrown still farther back ; gradually 
working forward, conditions were soon made 
favorable for continuance of excavation at the 
bottom of the burrow. At the depth of about 
a foot the body was hidden and only the tail 
exposed. This depth appeared to be satisfac- 
tory for a time, and the dwelling was occupied 
as if complete. 
The tail is club shaped, near six inches in 
length by one and a half in diameter, and re- 
tains its thickness back toward the end where 
it rather abruptly tapers to become more 
slender and pointed. When the tail was stick- 
ing out of the excavation, as in digging, the 
slender extremity moved from side to side, back 
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