286 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



but on a closer scrutiny you discover that he is not 

 only awake and alive, but that he has two lives in him 

 — in other words, that the two hemispheres of his brain 

 are working separately, each occupied with its own 

 problem. It may be seen in his eyes — minute round 

 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 indefatig- 

 able 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 

 eventually 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 



