284 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



the tongue follows like lightning, and lo, the fly has 

 vanished, and will buzz and look blue no more ! 



Meanwhile, the same chameleon, on the other side of 

 him, has fallen into a doze, or reverie, or is perchance 

 philosophising, the eye on that side being sunk into the 

 skull. One could say that he is lying comfortably 

 muffled up at home, lapped in rosy dreams, while his 

 fellow chameleon, the other half of him, is abroad 

 hunting, practising all his subtle strategy to capture a 

 shy volatile quarry. Yet at any moment these two, 

 so divided in mind and indifferent to each other's 

 doings and thinkings, can merge into one : they 

 literally pull themselves together, and a single will 

 takes command of the entire body, from the gargoyle 

 head to the prehensile tail. 



I can laugh now at the plight I was in just through 

 not being made like a chameleon ; but it wasn't a 

 laughing matter when Conscience pointed sternly to 

 the writing-table and at the same time a persuasive 

 voice called to me from the door to come out, 

 otherwise I should miss something never again to 

 be seen. No hint as to what the wonderful thing 

 was to be, nor when nor where it was to be seen : 

 all I had to do was to be out all day, patiently 

 waiting and watching ! 



The wonder is that when, in spite of conscience, I 

 got away, I did witness some things which were actually 

 worth recording. Thus, one day while sitting by the 

 old sea-ruined coastguard station on the dunes, between 

 the sea and the marsh, I noticed a small, unfamiliar 



