The Hifiory of ANIMALS. 
109 
It is produced in greatefl abundance in the torrid Zone, and fourteen degrees more 
north j they are frequent in America, to the latitude of 33, but are rare beyond this 5 
and this nearly anfwers to the north of Africa, where they are always found in great 
numbers. They frequent falt-water rivers principally, but they are alfo found about 
the large freffi ones, and even about large lakes: they generally lie hid among the 
reeds and rufhes, waiting quietly for the approach of men or animals, which they 
feize and drag into the water, always taking this method of drowning them firft, that 
they may fwallow them without trouble or refiftance : it’s general food, however, is 
hfh ; but even thefe, as well as other animals, it is obliged to take by furprize, as it 
can, in purfuit, only run ftraight forward ; the joints of the back-bone being fo ftiff, 
that it turns but very flowly and difficultly : they lay a number of eggs, which are not 
larger than thofe of a turkey; thefe they depofit in the fand, on the edges of rivers, 
and never are at any pains to take care of them afterward : the fun’s heat hatches the 
young, and they are no fooner out of the fhell, than they inftantly get into the wa¬ 
ter, where they are a prey to all kinds of devourers, fiffi, fowl, See. and are even 
fwallowed in great numbers by their own fpecies. In the colder of the countries they 
inhabit, they lie torpid all the winter in caverns, near the fides of rivers. The hinder 
part of their belly and tail are eaten by the Indians and Africans; the flefh is white, 
and of a kind of perfumed flavour. It has been deferibed by all that have written on 
animals, under the names of Crocodilus and Lacertus maximus. We call it the Cro¬ 
codile ; and in thofe countries where it does not grow to it’s full dimenfions, as in the 
colder ones, the Alligator. 
1 
Lacerta cauda tereti longa pedibus pentadaElylis , crifla gulce den - 
tatci) futura dorfali denticulata. 3 C 1 )C 
The long and rounded-tailed Lacerta , with five toes to the foot i (B 5 ttiUt 8 U 
and the crejl of the throat and dorfal future dentated . 
This fpecies of Lizard very much refembles the crocodile in it’s general form : it 
grows to five feet in length, though thofe of two or three are much more frequently 
met with : the body is very large and rounded; the head is fhort, the eyes are large, 
the creft of the gula is dentated j and all down the back, and along one third of the 
tail, there runs a dentated and prominent line, formed, as it were, of a number of 
triangular, pointed fpines: the tail is long and not compreffed, but rounded $ the legs 
are moderately long, and the toes are very long and flender; the mouth is armed with 
extreamly fmall teeth in great numbers, and has a kind of bony beak, with which it 
bites very feverely; the colour is a dufky olive, with more or lefs of the green in it, 
and with fome prominent veins of a paler hue feen through the fkin. 
It is a native of the hot countries; the woods about the tropics abound with it j it 
gets into hollow trees, or the crevices and leffer caverns of rocks. They lay a great 
number of eggs, which are covered with a foft and flexible tough fkin inftead of a 
fhell, and are left in the fand to be hatched by the fun’s heat, without any farther care 
of the parent animal: they feed wholly on vegetables, and are themfelves an excel¬ 
lently well-tafted food j their eggs alfo are delicate : the natives of many parts of South 
America, in a great meafure, live upon them : they have dogs that hunt them, and 
often kill them ; they go out with thefe dogs on the expedition frequently :\\what are 
killed they eat as their provifions for the time ; what they take alive they few up the 
mouths of, to prevent their biting, and carry home: they are a flow animal, and 
make no ufe of their legs in fwimming, only puffiing themfelves along by the tails: 
they are fo impatient of cold, that they rarely appear out of their holes, unlefs in bright 
and fun-finny warm weather. Moll of the authors who have written on thefe fubjeds 
have mentioned it j they call it Senembi, Guana, and Iguana. 
F f 
Lacerta 
