54 
GUANA. 
catched a sufficient number ; which they either carry 
alive for sale to Carolina, or salt and barrel up for 
the use of their families at home. These guanas 
feed wholly on vegetables and fruit, particularly on 
a kind of fungus growing at the roots of trees, and 
on the fruits of the different kinds of annonas. 
Their flesh is easy of digestion, delicate, and well 
tasted : they are sometimes roasted ; but the more 
common way is to boil them, taking out the leaves of 
fat, which are melted and clarified, and put into a 
calabash or dish, into which they dip the flesh of 
the guana as they eat it. It is remarkable that this 
fat, which adheres to the inside of the abdomen, 
imbibes the colour of the fruit the animal eats last, 
which I have frequently seen tinged of a pale red, 
yellow, or sometimes of a purple colour; which last 
was from eating the Primus mcirithna , which fruit, 
at the same time, I took out of them. Though 
they are not amphibious, they are said to keep un- 
der water about an hour. When they swim they 
use not their feet, but clap them close to their body, 
and guide themselves with their tails ; they swallow r 
all they eat whole. They cannot run fast, their 
holes being a greater security to them than their 
heels. They are so impatient of cold, that they 
rarely appear out of their holes but when the sun 
shines.” 
This species, like the rest of the tribe, will live 
a considerable time without food. Mr. Browne do- 
mesticated a guana in Jamaica, which was never ob- 
served to eat any thing except a few almost iinper- 
