178 NATURAL HTSTORY. 



of an ordinary lizard : his head unproportionably 

 big : his eyes great : he moveth his head without 

 the writhing of his neck, which is inflexible, as a hog 

 doth : his back crooked ; his skin spotted with little 

 tumours, less eminent nearer the belly ; his tail slen 

 der and long : on each foot he hath five fingers, 

 three on the outside., and two on the inside; his 

 tongue of a marvellous length in respect of his body, 

 and hollow at the end ; which he will launch out to 

 prey upon flies. Of colour green, and of a dusky 

 yellow, brighter and whiter towards the belly ; yet 

 spotted with blue, white, and red. If he be laid 

 upon green, the green predominated ; if upon 

 yellow, the yellow ; not so if he be laid upon blue, 

 or red, or white ; only the green spots receive a 

 more orient lustre ; laid upon black he looketh all 

 black, though not without a mixture of green. He 

 feedeth not only upon air, though that be his prin 

 cipal sustenance, for sometimes he taketh flies, as 

 was said, yet some that have kept chameleons a whole 

 year together, could never perceive that ever they 

 fed upon any thing else but air, and might observe 

 their bellies to swell after they had exhausted the 

 air, and closed their jaws ; which they open com 

 monly against the rays of the sun. They have a 

 foolish tradition in magic, that if a chameleon be 

 burnt upon the top of an house, it will raise a 

 tempest ; supposing, according to their vain dreams 

 of sympathies, because he nourisheth with air, his 

 body should have great virtue to make impression 

 upon the air. 



