IGUANA AND IGUANODON 
of life ; but vegetarianism in reptiles is not at all common. 
The crests along the back and the general attitude of the 
iguana, evidently suggested to the late Mr. Waterhouse 
Hawkins the pose for the Iguanodon in the grounds of 
the Crystal Palace. That extinct creature—an idea of 
which can be better gained by an inspection of a plaster 
cast, now on view in the Natural History Museum at 
South Kensington, of one of the magnificent Bernissart 
iguanodons in the Museum at Brussels—was named 
by a certain likeness which its teeth show to that of the 
iguana, a likeness very possibly to be accounted for by 
the fact that both are, or were, vegetable-feeding reptiles. 
However, our iguana has nothing whatever to do with 
itssemi-namesake. It is a true lizard and not a Dinosaur 
as is the Iguanodon. This lizard grows to several feet 
in length, of which the tail forms a considerable propor- 
tion. Being a plant eater, its flesh is succulent and 
sought after, and is said to taste like chicken. It is 
hunted with dogs, before whose keen noses the protec- 
tive colours of the iguana are useless to it. The common 
iguana occasionally varies from the typical appearance, 
and some of the scales upon the nose grow out into horny 
excrescences. “ Rhinolopha”’ is the appropriate name 
given to this variety which is, however, not a variety in 
the sense that is it a distinct form unconnected by inter- 
mediate grades with the typical Iguana tuberculata. 
Every intermediate condition occurs, and thus we see 
that there can be no question of two species. The 
iguana of Santa Lucia in the West Indies (referred to a 
different genus) grows to five or six feet in length, and 
appears to be of a brighter green when young than when 
full grown, a fact which is in accord with the greater need 
for protection of the young against their many foes. 
The full grown iguana is by no means an easy prey to 
those creatures which attack it, and the late Mr. P. H. 
Gosse observed of it that it “ directs its eye to the object 
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