186 
SHEEWSBURY. 
berries. I have already mentioned the contents of 
the stomach in one specimen that I examined; in 
another this viscus, a membranous sac, nearly as long 
as the trunk, contained nothing of an animal nature, 
but only some pulpy berries, and several stony seeds 
closely like those of a grape. One which I captured 
with a hair-noose, indeed, on being turned into the 
lizard-box, seemed to manifest hostility to the Anoles 
which were there ; these fled from it, and the Gecko 
appeared to have a desire of pursuing, for it crept 
towards one and another with a stealthy step, the 
belly and head being on the ground, like a cat 
watching a mouse. Yet these actions might be 
nothing more than the manifestation of caution on 
being put into unwonted circumstances. While thus 
engaged, it ever and anon licked its lips with its pro- 
truded tongue ; an action common to all our Gecko^ 
tidce. The ordinary length of the species is about 
nine inches. 
THE POND TURTLE. 
Between Shrewsbury and Content is a pond of 
about one fourth of an acre in extent, choked up 
with Potamogeton, and covered with Duckweed. It 
is embosomed in the high woods which rear them- 
selves around it on every side ; a giant Cotton-tree 
rises from the margin, and the long branches of a 
vigorous Bastard-cedar reach almost quite across it. 
A luxuriant gourd called the Duppy’s melon has 
* Duppy is a spiritual personage of whom the negroes are terribly 
afraid; it might be rendered “hobgoblin.” The habit of naming 
