[THE IGUANA.]
BY HELEN S. CONANT.
The iguana is a very large and very ugly-looking lizard, which is found all through the American tropics. It measures fully five feet in length, its body being over two feet, and its long tapering tail nearly three. It is covered with scales, and its usual color is green shaded with brown. Iguanas possess, however, to an extent exceeded only by the chameleon, the power of changing their colors, the brilliant green becoming transformed in an instant, through the influence of fear or anger, into darker hues, or even into black.
The eyes of the iguana are large, as is also its head, while a pouch, serrated in front, depends from the lower jaw. It also has a serrated tuft, like a comb, extending along its back and half the length of its tail. Its legs are long, and its feet are armed with strong claws, which enable it to climb about among the branches of the trees with the greatest rapidity.
One would think that so large a creature would be slow and clumsy in its movements, but no squirrel or small lizard could be lighter and more active than the iguana. It is as much at home in the water as on the land, and can remain under the surface a long time without coming up to breathe. When swimming, it propels itself ahead with marvellous quickness by waving its long tail from side to side, and using its paws very much in the manner that a boy would use his arms.
A singular instance of the power and velocity of the iguana is related by an English traveller. On the bank of a river he came suddenly upon one of these huge lizards lying concealed in the tall grass. Alarmed by the appearance of a man, whom the iguana recognizes as its deadly enemy, the creature sprang into the water; but in place of swimming, so great was the force of its spring that it skimmed across the broad river, scarcely touching the surface with its feet. In two minutes it reached the sand-banks of the opposite shore, and vanished among the bushes.
Although of such immense size, the weight of the iguana is scarcely ten pounds, which fact probably accounts for its extreme lightness of motion.
It is not very pleasant for a person of civilized taste to think of eating a lizard, but the flesh of the iguana is considered a great delicacy. Indians hunt it with bows and arrows, and when brought to market it is sold for a high price. Another method of catching it is to slip a noose around its neck as it sits in fancied security upon the branch of a tree. The country people roast it in hot ashes, and the meat is said to be tender and juicy, and very delicate in flavor. The eggs, too, which are rich and oily, are favorite eating. They are about as large as a dove's eggs, and of a glistening white. The iguana buries them, eighteen or twenty together, in a hole in the sand, and leaves them to be hatched by the sun.
The little ones are left to take care of themselves as best they can. Humboldt, the great traveller and naturalist, found nests of young iguanas which were apparently just hatched. They were not over four inches long, and were very spry little things, and much prettier than later on in their lizard life.
The iguana will never attack an enemy, but when cornered, is a valiant fighter. It will hiss and spit like a cat, and erecting the comb on its back, it will spring at its enemy, dealing powerful blows with its tail, and biting with its sharp teeth. The following story is told by an Australian settler of an encounter between an iguana and a snake: "I saw a heavy fight the other day between a large iguana and a tree-snake about five feet long. They were both going to pay a visit to a ''possum' which lived in a big hole in a tree. Each went up a different side of the tree, and met at the entrance to the hole, and then the row began. The great lizard squealed in a most defiant manner, and the snake was in no way behindhand in hissing. In fact, strong reptile language filled the air for fully ten minutes before the fight commenced; then they went at it. But the iguana was too much for the snake, and killed him in a few minutes, seeming to take no notice of a good many bites, for the snake fought pluckily. The ''possum' profited by this chance to escape to a top limb of the tree, where he sat blinking in the sunlight, till presently a great eagle-hawk came swooping down on him, and was carrying him off, when I put in a word, or rather a charge of shot, and so earned 2s. 6d., that is, head-money."