One of the largest and most widely distributed is the common iguana (_Iguana tuberculata_), which occurs in the tropical parts of Central and South America and the West Indies, with the closely allied _I. rhinolophus_. It attains a length of 6 ft., weighing then perhaps 30 lb., and is of a greenish colour, occasionally mixed with brown, while the tail is surrounded with alternate rings of those colours. Its food consists of vegetable substances, mostly leaves, which it obtains from the forest trees among whose branches it lives and in the hollows of which it deposits its eggs. These are of an oblong shape about 1½ in. in length, and are said by travellers to be very pleasant eating, especially when taken raw, and mixed with farina. They are timid, defenceless animals, depending for safety on the comparative inaccessibility of their arboreal haunts, and their protective colouring, which is rendered even more effective by their remaining still on the approach of danger. But the favourite resorts of the iguana are trees which overhang the water, into which they let themselves fall with a splash, whatever the height of the tree, and then swim away, or hide at the bottom for many minutes. Otherwise they exhibit few signs of animal intelligence. "The iguana," says H. W. Bates (_The Naturalist on the Amazons_), "is one of the stupidest animals I ever met. The one I caught dropped helplessly from a tree just ahead of me; it turned round for a moment to have an idiotic stare at the intruder and then set off running along the path. I ran after it and it then stopped as a timid dog would do, crouching down and permitting me to seize it by the neck and carry it off." Along with several other species, notably _Ctenosura acanthinura_, which is omnivorous, likewise called iguana, the common iguana, is much sought after in tropical America; the natives esteem its flesh a delicacy, and capture it by slipping a noose round its neck as it sits in fancied security on the branch of a tree. [Illustration: FIG. 2.--Head of _Iguana rhinolophus_.]