412 



CHARLES DARWIN 



observed small fly-eating lizards, when watching anything, 

 nod their heads in precisely the same manner; but I do not 

 at all know for what purpose. If this Amblyrhynchus 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 ground and held together, they will 

 fight, and bite each other till blood is drawn. 



The individuals, and they are the greater number, which 

 inhabit 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 deliber- 

 ately, 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 animals 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 

 vegetable 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 stomachs soar above all 

 prejudices. 



Humboldt 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 



