The American Chameleon 



The males are provided with a peculiar throat pouch. This 

 may be expanded at will, to the accompaniment of an emphatic 

 nodding of the head. At best but an ornament and perfectly 

 flat when extended, it is exhibited during times of love-making 

 or previous to combats — and vicious indeed are the fights between 

 rival males for an exceptionally desirable stretch of fence-rail; 

 the fight is called off with the loss of a tail on one side or the 

 other; with his writhing souvenir, the victor struts about for 

 some time, repeatedly nodding his head and dilating the throat 

 fan while his body glows in a resplendent tint of emerald. 



Strictly diurnal, the "Chameleon" appears with the rising 

 of the sun, from where it has been sleeping; the resting place 

 is generally a horizontal twig, well hidden among the leaves. 

 The morning prowl is prompted by a hungry stomach. A large 

 and tempting fly is stalked in the same fashion as a cat does a 

 bird. Slinking forward, with body close to the bough, the lizard 

 nears the victim, then quivers for the rush; there is a dash, with 

 open jaws, and the prey is caught. Before the fly is swallowed 

 the sharp little teeth are employed to masticate it. The Anolis 

 confines its food entirely to insects. It will not eat earthworms, 

 nor will the majority of small lizards. 



In captivity the "Chameleon" makes a pretty and amusing 

 pet, soon learning to take food from one's fingers. Mealworms 

 and flies are the favorite food; it will also take roaches. The 

 sugar and water diet so often imposed upon these reptiles by 

 kindh'-intentioned but misinformed people, is only taken by 

 the lizard to quench a killing thirst, for these little animals drink 

 much and if deprived of water will rapidly weaken and die. 

 Their method of drinking is to lap the drops of dew from vege- 

 tation. The quarters of captive lizards should be sprinkled 

 daily that the reptiles may drink in this manner; they do not 

 readily find a dish of water. 



While it is agile and favoured by the adhesive foot pads that 

 enable it to run over smooth surfaces, at various angles, this 

 lizard is not nearly so difficult to capture, if a little strategy is 

 employed, as the swifts (Sceloporus) or the race-runners (Cnemi- 

 dophorus). Compared with those lacertilians, its gait is very 

 tardy. 



loS 



