180 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



deeply green, and if the excitement continues gradually change to 

 black. When placed upon a tree the groundwork becomes a deep 

 green and the stripes a deeper green or black, and so long as they re- 

 main on the trees the color does not change. The prevailing idea, that 

 they take on the peculiar hue of the foliage among which they happen 

 to be, is, I think, erroneous. We have placed them on the scarlet leaves 

 of the dracsena and among the red flowers of the acacia, with no change 

 from the prevailing green. 



My largest specimen measures from nose to tip of tail fourteen 

 inches, the body and tail being about equal the circumference of the 

 largest part of the body about six inches. The legs are thick and 

 muscular. The form of the feet, .so far as I am aware, has no parallel 

 in the animal kingdom. They resemble two hands placed palm to 

 palm and divided to the wrist. The outer palm has three minute 

 fingers armed with sharp, curved claws, while the inner has but two. 

 Opened to its full extent it clasps a space of about two inches. Hands 

 and feet are much the same, except that the feet are somewhat larger 

 and thicker. The entire body is covered with armor. This consists 

 of oval plates placed edge to edge. There are about nine hundred to 

 the square inch, giving on my largest specimen, by estimate, thirty- 

 two thousand plates. The color has its seat in the armor. 



The tail coils up into a ring quite close to the body, when not 

 required for use. The feet and tail have great power of prehension. 

 The animal will clasp a branch with either so firmly that considerable 

 force is necessary to detach it. Giving the tail a turn round a twig they 

 will throw the body forward and grasp another branch a foot or more 

 away, and so move from branch to branch. At night they hang them- 

 selves up, sometimes by the tail only, or by the tail and one or more of 

 their claws, and so sleep. 



The eyes are cones about. one fourth of an inch in diameter, one 

 half projecting beyond the socket, completely covered with armor 

 except at the point where the pupil is seen. This is about the size of 

 the head of a large pin, set in a delicate ring of burnished gold. The 

 eyes act independently of each other, the cones rolling freely in all 

 directions, one often looking straight forward while the other is turned 

 backward, giving them a most comical appearance. 



The mouth is literally an open sepulchre. When opened you see a 

 deep cavern almost down to the stomach, with no indications of a 

 tongue. At the ramus of the lower jaw a deposit of whitish, gelatinous 

 matter may be seen, covered with a thick, viscid mucus. On pressing 

 upward beneath the jaws, a round, fleshy tongue is thrown up, a fourth 

 of an inch in diameter and extending deep into the throat, the point of 

 which is covered by the gelatinous deposit before mentioned, much 

 like the swab on the rammer of a cannon. There are no teeth, but 

 the edges of the jaws are serrated to serve the purpose of seizing and 

 holding its game. 



