GUANA. 
53 
soothed and delighted, the animal suffers the per- 
son to advance his rod gently, and rub it against its 
sides and throat. This additional pleasure com- 
pletes its ruin; for the guana, beyond measure 
gratified by this operation, turns on its back to en- 
joy the tickling, while the treacherous negro slips 
the noose over its neck, and drags it to the ground. 
Catesby, during his residence in America, made 
the following observations on these animals : “ Gu- 
anas are of various sizes, from two to five feet in 
length: their mouths are furnished with exceeding 
small teeth, but their jaws armed with a long beak, 
with which they bite with great strength. They 
inhabit warm countries only, and are rarely to be 
met with any where north or south of the tropics. 
Many of the Bahama islands abound with them, 
where they nestle in hollow rocks and trees ; their 
eggs have not a hard shell, like those of alligators, 
but a skin only, like those of a turtle, and are 
esteemed a good food. They lay a great number 
of eggs at a time in the earth, which are there 
hatched by the sun’s heat. These guanas are a 
great part of the subsistence of the inhabitants of 
the Bahama islands ; for which purpose they visit 
many parts of the remote kayes and islands in their 
sloops to catch them, which they do by dogs trained 
up for that purpose, which are so dexterous as not 
often to kill them ; which if they do, they serve 
only for present spending: if otherwise, they sew 
up their mouths to prevent their biting, and put 
them into the hold of their sloop till they have 
