Chameleons. 157 



to those that do apply themselves to the Know- 

 ledge of Nature. And those Wonders which 

 Naturalists have related of this inconsiderable 

 Animal have made it to be the most Famous 

 Symbole used in Bhetorick and Ethicks, to repre- 

 sent the base compliance of Courtiers and 

 Flatterers, and the Vanity wherewith simple and 

 light Minds do feed themselves. Its very name 

 in Tertullian is the subject of a Serious Meditation 

 upon False-glory, and he proposes it as the 

 Example of the Impudence of Cheats and 

 Boasters." After this diatribe our author pro- 

 ceeds to deal with the animal's name in the 

 following quaint manner : " It is not known truly 

 why the Greeks have bestowed so fine a Name 

 upon so vile and ugly a Beast by calling it the 

 Little-Lyon, orDwarf-Lyon according to Isidore's 

 Etymology. Gesner says that it somewhat 

 resembles the Lyon, without mentioning wherein. 

 Panarolus would have it the Tail, which is crooked 

 at the end, as he says, like the Lyons ; But the 

 Truth is, that neither the Camelion nor the Lyon 

 have a crooked Tail. . . . Licetus thinks that 

 this name was given it, because as the Lyon 

 Hunts and devours other Animals, so the Came- 

 lion catches Flies ; by the same reason that a little 

 Worm which hunts and takes Ants, as Albertus 

 has described, is called Formicaleon." The 

 following is his amusing account of the animal 

 and its habits : " The Camelion is of the kinde 

 of four-footed Beasts, which do lay eggs, as the 



