76 
BLUEFIELDS. 
or two through the air, and alights on the hack of 
his playfellow ; and both struggle and twist about 
in unimaginable contortions. Another is running 
up and down on the plastered wall, catching the 
ants as they roam in black lines over its whited 
surface ; and another leaps from the top of some 
piece of furniture upon the back of the visitor’s 
chair, and scampers nimbly along the collar of his 
coat. It jumps on the table ; — can it be the same.^ 
An instant ago it was of the most beautiful golden 
green, except the base of the tail, which was of a 
soft, light, purple hue ; now, as if changed by an en- 
chanter’s wand, it is of a sordid sooty brown all over, 
and becomes momentarily darker and darker, or 
mottled with dark and pale patches of a most un- 
pleasing aspect. Presently, however, the mental 
emotion, whatever it was, anger, or fear, or dislike, 
has passed away, and the lovely green hue sparkles 
in the glancing sunlight as before. 
He lifts the window-sash ; and instantly there run 
out on the sill two or three minute Lizards of a new 
kind, allied to the Gecko, the common Pallette-tip 
{Sphceriodactylus argus). It is scarcely more than 
two inches long, more nimble than fleet in its move- 
ments, and not very attractive. 
In the woods he would meet with other kinds. 
On the trunks of the trees he might frequently see 
the Venus {Dactyloa Edwardsii), as it is provincially 
called ; a Lizard much like the Anoles of the houses, 
of a rich grass-green colour, with orange throat-disk, 
but much larger and fiercer : or in the eastern parts 
of the island the great Iguana {Cyclura lophomd), 
