210 ANIMAL SKETCHES. 'CHAP. 



steam and become thin and hungry-looking to a degree ; 

 and after a few minutes he will blow himself out again till 

 he is as hollow as a drum, so that when he swallows a fly 

 one feels inclined to listen, in the expectation of hearing it 

 buzzing about inside him. 



But perhaps one of the most remarkable things about 

 this remarkable lizard if it be a lizard, and not, as has 

 been suggested, an almost solitary existing relic of a once 

 important group of reptiles, the Dinosaurs one of its 

 most remarkable powers, I say, is that of changing colour 

 in relation to its surroundings. Have you ever read James 

 Merrick's piece of verse in which he describes how two 

 travellers were arguing what was the colour of the 

 chameleon ; whether it was blue or green ? And how they 

 referred the question to a third who said that it was 

 neither one nor t'other ? " If you don't find him black, I'll 

 eat him," he exclaimed. I have often wondered whether he 

 did eat him, and if he was nice ! For when they turned the 

 creature out before them, to the surprise of all three he was 

 white ! Now with all his changes of colour the chameleon 

 cannot turn white or black. Yellow, blue, light green, 

 and dark brownish green, are the colours I have noted 

 in the common South African species. There is no doubt 

 that the change of colour is such as to make the creature 

 less conspicuous from its resemblance in tint to that of its 

 surroundings. I have often watched a chameleon walk 

 from shadow into sunlight and been struck by the rapid 

 change of colour. The influence of bright light makes him 

 darker. If the fore part of his body be in shadow and the 

 hind part in sunshine, the former will be lighter in tint 

 than the latter. 



A very careful observer of South African animal life, 

 Mrs. Barber, believes that the small grey mottled chame- 

 leon turning light grey in the evening thereby becomes 



