tenance, is
perfectly harmless; except that it can give a sharp bite with its
compressed triangular and serrated teeth. It lives generally on trees.
When hard-pressed it takes to the water, and swims with ease,--pressing
its legs close to its sides, and sculling itself on with its tail; while
it can remain an hour or more under water without suffering.

The flesh of the iguana, unfortunately for itself, is considered
excellent; and hunters go out to catch it with a noose at the end of a
long stick, which they cast round its neck, and then by a sudden jerk
pull it to the ground. As the creature seems to fancy that it cannot be
reached on the bough, it seldom moves on the approach of the hunter, and
is thus easily caught. It lashes out with its tail, however, and tries
to bite, when once it finds itself entrapped; and being also very
tenacious of life, it is not killed without repeated heavy blows, or a
pistol-shot in its head.

The common iguanas are numerous in the neighbourhood of villages, where
they climb the trees for the sake of their fruit. Some species lay
their eggs--which are about an inch and a half in length, and oblong--in
hollow trees. Others are known to do so in the sand, to be hatched by
the heat of the sun. They are considered delicacies, and are much
sought after in consequence.

The colour of the iguana changes, like that of the chameleon. The
Brazilians, indeed, call it the chameleon. Its food consists almost
entirely of fruits and other vegetable substances, though some species
are supposed to be omnivorous. The natives frequently tame it, when it
willingly allows itself to be carried about by its owner, though it at
once distinguishes strangers.

There are, however, numerous species of iguanas; indeed, the family
contains fifty genera--the true iguanas being all inhabitants of the New
World. To its predecessor, which it closely resembles in bony
structure, the largest is but a mere pigmy--for that extinct monster
must have been about seventy feet in length, the length of the tail
alone being fifty-two feet, and the circumference of the body fourteen
and a half feet; while its thigh-bone was twenty times the size of that
of the modern iguana. Vast as was the inhabitant of the ancient world,
it was herbivorous, like that of the comparatively Lilliputian creature
of the present day.

Everywhere the agile, beautifully-tinted lizards abound, sunning
themselves on logs of wood, or scampe