280 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



lenses mounted on swivels, or small fleshy or rubber 

 processes, capable of being elevated or depressed and 

 pointed in this or that direction at will. They are 

 like the freely moving ears of a horse, but they do 

 not point one way, since each one, together with the 

 half-brain which governs it, is occupied with looking 

 at a different thing. You see, for instance, that one 

 of the pair is now aimed like a spy-glass at some 

 remote object, also that it is continually moving, 

 and you will presently discover that it is following 

 the erratic movements of a bluebottle wandering 

 about the room. This is not an idle amusement nor 

 mere mental curiosity on the chameleon's part; he 

 knows that the fly is an indefatigable traveller and 

 investigator; that by-and-by, when he has finished 

 quartering the ceiling, running up and down the 

 walls and looking at the pictures, he will turn his 

 attention to the furniture, piece by piece, and eventu- 

 ally arrive at that very spot, that stand or table with 

 its counterfeit presentment of a branch, and upon 

 the branch the strange image of a monster, perhaps 

 a god, of stone or metal, dug up by some Flinders 

 Petrie in some desert city, where it has been lying 

 buried in sand these several thousand years. Truly 

 a curious and interesting object for an inquisitive 

 fly to look at! And just as a little tourist will place 

 himself in front of the Sphinx to survey its counten- 

 ance at a proper distance of forty or fifty yards, so 

 does the fly settle himself before the face of the 

 chameleon, at a distance of six or eight or ten inches. 

 That is not too far for the tongue, which is as long as 



