CHAMELEONS. 



(Aug. 30, 1890.) 



THE chameleon is one of nature's strangest pro- 

 ductions ; it belongs to the great order of liznrds, 

 an order which is divided into a large number of 

 families, and comprises many hundreds of species 

 which exhibit a great variety of form and structure, 

 none of them, however, showing such a degree 

 of specialisation as the chameleon. Its curious 

 uncanny appearance, to say nothing of its power 

 of changing colour which, be it observed, is not, 

 as is generally supposed, peculiar to itself, but is 

 possessed, though not in so marked a degree, by 

 other species of lizards have made it an object 

 of interest and wonder to mankind from the 

 earliest times, and all sorts of fabulous stories 

 have been told of it, some of them having a 

 foundation in fact, but the majority, as is usual in 

 such cases, being nothing but the purest invention. 

 The chameleons have by no means a large range, 

 the greater number of species being natives of 

 Africa and Madagascar the latter country alone 

 possessing more than twenty species though one 

 or two are found in Asia Minor, India, and Ceylon. 



