D’Azara states that they feed on fruits and insects, as well as on toads, serpents, young chickens, and eggs; also that they are fond of honey; and that in order to procure it without fear of the bees, they come forward at intervals, and each time as they run away, they give the hive a blow with their tail, till by repeated attacks they weary out the industrious insects, and drive them from their home.[1] It is not certain that the Sauveguardes are frugivorous; but there is no doubt that they feed on insects, for MM. Duméril and Bibron found remains of them in the stomachs of all the individuals which they opened. In one they found the fragments of Coleoptera and the remains of caterpillars; in another, portions of skin and bones which had certainly belonged to a common Ameiva.
But two species of this genus are recognised, of which we select for illustration the Teguixin (Teius teguixin, Linn.), as the longest and best known. It is well figured in Madame Merian’s splendid but not always faithful plates on the insects, &c., of Surinam, whence some naturalists, in honour of that lady, have distinguished the species by her name Monitor Merianæ.
This noble Lizard is reported to attain the length of four or even five feet, and a thickness proportionate. Its ground-colour is a deep velvety black, beautifully varied with rich yellow spots, sometimes irregularly scattered, sometimes arranged in transverse bands, and sometimes in two longitudinal stripes running the whole length of the body. The face and whole under parts are yellow banded with black, and the posterior
- ↑ This sagacity seems somewhat apocryphal.
