Malayan Peninsula and Islands. 31 



3 to .") flattened scales, pointing outwards, forming a minute longitu- 

 dinal crest. 



Normal colours. Beautiful grass green, lighter beneath, entirely, or 

 partially changeable to light grey, greyish olive, greenish brown, or 

 blackish, sometimes with orange spots, or with indistinct black net- 

 work ; large isolated round spots on the head or back, or the lips, 

 eyelids, or margins round tympanum, momentarily black ; sometimes 

 with transversal distant brown bands, particularly on the tail.* Scales 

 of the outside of the limbs and feet edged with brown. Pupil circular ; 

 iris brown with a narrow golden ring. 



TIabit. — Malayan Peninsula, Pinang, Singapore. 

 Amboyna, Island of Buru, Java, Sumatra. 

 This species is very numerous in the Malayan countries both in the 

 vallies and on the hills. It moves and leaps with great quickness among 

 the branches of trees. The most striking feature is the great power of 

 suddenly changing its colours. The Malayan denomination of this 

 species is " Griming" which in Marsden's Dictionary is translated " a 

 species of lizard, which changes its colour as it is affected by fear or 

 anger ; the cameleon." No camcleon however appears to inhabit the 

 Malayan countries, but the present lizard passes under that name among 

 the European inhabitants. One of the largest males was of the follow- 

 ing dimensions : 



Length of the head, feet If inch. 



Ditto ditto trunk, 3| 



Ditto ditto tail, 1 2 



Entire length, 1ft. 7|- inch. 



Those of the intestinal canal : 



Small intestines, 3f inch. 



Large, „ If 



Ccecum, „ Of 



The stomach is cylindrical, simply a continuation of oesophagus 

 without fundus, but separated from the small intestines by a valve. In 



* During life there is no trace of blue, or even bluish green about this lizard, but after 

 death it sometimes acquires this colour from the etl'ects ol spirits of wine, to which cir- 

 cumstance must be attributed the denomination of " Blue Calotes," Grav, in Griffith's 

 edition of Cuvier. Vol. 9, p, 55. 



