xiv. DWARF LTONS. 211 



conspicuous, and tempts night-flying insects to come and 

 examine him, in the hopes that he may be a flower. 

 Moreover, Mrs. Barber believes, though she is not prepared 

 to state it as a fact, that in this position the chameleon 

 opens its mouth, which is coloured light yellow, as a decoy 

 to insects that are passing by, for the purpose of tempting 

 them into a living tomb. Sly dwarf lion ! Mr. Poulton 

 describes an Asiatic lizard which has at each angle of the 

 mouth a fold of red-coloured skin, which is produced into 

 a flower-like shape exactly resembling a little red flower 

 which grows in the sand. Insects attracted by what they 

 believe to be genuine blossoms, approach the mouth of 

 the lizard, on which the hospitable reptile invites them 

 inside and will take no refusal. All this may be so ; but 

 I, for one, should like to have accurately recorded obser- 

 vations of insect capture by these means. 



Notwithstanding all that has been written on the subject 

 I do not think that we yet quite understand how the 

 variations in colour in the chameleon are brought about. 

 We know, however, that beneath the skin there are 

 coloured grains, which change in shape under the in- 

 fluence of the light that falls upon the creature now 

 collecting into little rounded masses, and now spreading 

 out into diffused and branching forms. And the late M. 

 Paul Bert tells us that, under the influence of certain 

 nerves, these grains may also change their position, either 

 burying themselves deeper in the skin, or spreading out 

 to form a network nearer its surface. Thus by change of 

 form and change of position, these coloured grains modify 

 the prevailing yellowish colour. 



The change of colour is very rapid and is certainly 

 under the influence of the emotions. I once held up 

 before one of my chameleons a ringhals slang a deadly 

 snake with an expanded head like that of a cobra which 



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