The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1905-02-07
THE MEXICAN LIZARD
DELICIOUS EATING, HIS FLESH LIKE
THAT OF CHICKEN.

A Tale of the Curious Tail of the
Iguann = The Way This Peculiar
Creature Can Grow New Append
age In Place of One Lost or Stolen.
My tale is Of the tail of lizard. We
had steamed and railroaded many hun
dreds of miles and at the end of civili-
cation had started over a steep and
narrow trail with horses and pack
mules, finally finding ourselves en-
eamped in deep canyon or barranca
In west central Mexico
Iguanas, great, black lizards, three
feet or more in length, were abundant
in the deep caves of the cliff, coming
out early in the morning to sun them
selves and bobbing up and down as an
owl ducks his head to get better look
at us as our Mexican cook started the
fire or stirred about the camp. We
found them delicious eating Though
the Mexican demurred at first, preju-
dice was soon cast aside. Their limbs
might be black skinned and scaly with
out, but within all was sweet, white
meat, like that Of chickens and frogs
legs.
The iguanas, which had their bur
rows in the ground, would climb up
each morning, up, up to the topmost
limbs of some trees, and there bask in
the sun. They had a most startling
way of descending, headlong dive to
the underbrush or into the water. AS
twilight fell the sight of these great
black apparitions sprawling earthward
was most remarkable If one of them
had ever struck US In its descent our
interest In this strange habit would
suddenly have become lessened.
Our usual method of procuring these
giant lizards for our larder was to
shoot them high above us, when they
would tumble headlong to our feet.
Sometimes we could approach close to
one when it was fast asleep in the
scorching heat of midday. Once l
seized big fellow by the tail. l was
sorry a moment later, but as did not
want to be beaten by a lizard l held
stoutly on. Never before had taken
hold of such a steel spring. The crea-
ture curled and twisted and snapped
its body about, the sharp scales hav-
ing anything but pleasant feeling on
the palm of my hand Suddenly some
thing gave way, and fell on my back,
while the iguana shot off in the OPP
posite direction into a deep hollow
among the rocks. When l regained
my feet l found some nine inches Of
tail in my hand, almost one-third Of
the entire animal
This is not an uncommon occurrence
among lizards and the ability to part
with so considerable portion of their
anatomy insures many an escape from
what would otherwise be inevitable
death.
Almost all animals with backbones
have a thick, pliable cushion of car
tilage between each of the bones in
their spinal column, which permits
them to bend and twist it with much
freedom. The backbone of the iguana
is at first all cartilage, and when the
hard cells of the bone begin to be de-
posted a deep, narrow wedge or crack
is left in each tail bone This is filed
with soft cartilage. SO these bones are
greatly weakened near their centers.
Instead of an accidental defect this is
an all wise provision of nature, fore
seeing that hawks, vagrant naturalists
and other enemies may some day be
too quick for the reptile and will seize
it's tail before it can escape
When this happens, as in my case,
the strain of the struggling creatures
body Is too great for the weak spots in
its tail bones, and one of these gives
way, with the result above narrated.
The muscles, too, are arranged to aid
this phenomenon. They are short and
thick and conical instead Of running
the whole length of the tail, and, being
only dovetailed together, they readily
give way. Only a few drops of blood
escape; then the stump heals over, and
before long a new tail begins to shoot
out.
This, of course, contains no bones,
but instead a long, unjointed rod of
cartilage exactly like the ancestral one
which was present in the embryo igu-
ana. Stranger still, the scales on this
new tail are unlike those on the rest Of
the creatures body and actually may
be like those of some bygone ancestor.
In the smaller lizards, called geckos,
this seems always to be the case.
When l closely examined the tail
which the iguana had left in my hands
saw that it was one of these fraud"
tails and had long ago supplanted the
original appendage, with which some
other enemy. doubtless feathered one,
had absconded. Two new vertebrate or
tail bones had come off with the base
of my piece.
But the owner cares nothing for the
number or character of his new tails.
They serve him well, and he is content
1t is a curious fact that the tail making
machinery in his backbone is so active
that sometimes a double or even a
triple tail will push out at the stump,
and when the original tail is even only
slightly injured at one side tiny tail
will often sprout out where 1t has no
right to bee. William Beebe in New
York Tribune