no 



LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



country told him that it lived in hollow trees. 

 Hasselquist was not an eye-witness of this habit ; 

 but often saw it climb on the branches of the olive, 

 plane, and other trees. He had seen the chame- 

 leon of Egypt ; but observes that it is less than 

 the Asiatic, and is not often met with. 



When Hasselquist made all the inquiry he could 

 concerning the nature of the animal, in a place 

 where it was so frequently found, the inhabitants 

 told him that it would assume the color of a piece 

 of cloth, or other painted or colored substance, 

 which might be put before it. Some assured him 

 that it lived only on air, but others told him that 

 they had seen it catching a sort of very small flies. 



When the hypocritical king inquires, " How 

 fares our cousin Hamlet?" the Prince of Den- 

 inark replies, " Excellent, i' faith, of the came- 

 lion's dish ; I eate the ayre promise-cramm'd, you 

 cannot feed capons so." 



These qualities, of changing color and living on 

 air, have been attributed to it from the earliest 

 times. The first is well-founded ; the last fabu- 

 lous, but the fable has been fortified by the power 

 possessed by the reptile of living in apparently 

 good health for a long time many weeks with- 

 out visibly taking any sustenance. 



In the stomach of one dissected by Hasselquist, 

 he found the remains of various insects, tipulae, 

 coccinellae, and butterflies ; and in its droppings, 

 he found part of an entire ear of barley, which he 

 characterizes justly as very singular.* He kept 

 one alive for a considerable time, and applied him- 

 self to observations on its habits. 



He could never see that it assumed the color of 

 any painted object presented to its view, though 

 he made many experiments with all kinds of colors, 

 on different things flowers, cloth, paintings, &c. 

 Its natural color was iron-gray, or black mixed 

 with a little gray. This it sometimes changed, 

 and became entirely of a brimstone yellow. That 

 was the color which he saw it most frequently 

 assume, with the exception of the hue first men- 

 tioned. He had seen it change to a darker yellow, 

 approaching somewhat to a green, sometimes to a 

 lighter ; at which time it was more inclined to a 

 white than a yellow. He did not observe, that it 

 assumed any more colors ; such as red, blue, pur- 

 ple, &c. ; and, for that reason, was inclined to 

 believe that all which has been said concerning the 

 changing and shifting of colors in this animal, 

 consisted only in this, that on certain occasions it 

 changes the dark color, which seems to be natural 

 to it, into yellow of various shades. He observed 

 that his reptile more particularly did it on two 

 occasions ; one was, when he exposed it to the 

 hot beams of the sun ; and the other, when he 

 made it angry by pointing at it with his finger. 

 When it was changing from black to yellow, the 

 soles of its feet, its head, and the bag under its 

 throat began first to alter an alteration which 



* The presence of the grain may be accounted for by 

 the presence of an insect on it, when the chameleon, 

 with the tip of its adhesive tongue, may have brought 

 away the grain, with its natural prey. 



was afterwards continued over the whole body. 

 He saw it several times speckled, or marked with 

 large spots of both colors over the whole body, 

 which gave it an elegant appearance. When it 

 was of an iron-gray color, it extended its sides or 

 ribs and hypochondria, which made the skin sit 

 close to the body, and it appeared plump and 

 handsome ; but as soon as it turned yellow, it 

 contracted those parts, appearing thin, empty, lean, 

 and ugly ; and the nearer it approached in color 

 to white, the emptier and uglier it seemed ; but 

 it appeared worse, in regard to shape, when it was 

 speckled. 



Hasselquist kept this creature alive from the 

 8th of March to the 1st of April, without afford- 

 ing it an opportunity of taking any food. This it 

 much to be regretted, because, in its native climate, 

 there can be little doubt that, from its vivacity, it 

 would have fed freely, and the powers of absti- 

 nence of the animal had been tested again and 

 again. Notwithstanding its fast, it was nimble 

 and lively during the greater part of the time, 

 climbing up and down in its cage, fond of being 

 near the light, and constantly rolling its eyes. At 

 last Hasselquist could plainly perceive that the 

 victim waxed lean and suffered from hunger ; but 

 the Swede was obdurate, though he saw that it 

 could no longer hold fast by the bars of its cage, 

 from which it fell through weakness, when a 

 turtle, a thirse probably, which was kept in the 

 same room, bit it, and hastened its death. 



Before I came to the resolution induced by the 

 death of poor Binny, my tame beaver, a friend 

 gave me a living chameleon, which remained with 

 me nearly two months. It was winter, and every 

 precaution was adopted to make the poor reptile 

 as comfortable as possible. It lived in a wicker 

 cage, to the bars of which it clung with feet and 

 tail ; but, after it had been with me a few days, it 

 would leave the cage and establish itself on the 

 ornamental work of the iron fender before the fire. 

 Soon it began to recognize me, surveying me with 

 a knowing roll of its singular optics, opened in 

 the centre of the shagreen-like globes of the eyes. 

 It then would leave the bars of the cage for my 

 hand, the warmth of which seemed to comfort it, 

 and would remain in it till I transferred it to the 

 warm fender, which was its favorite post. Cling- 

 ing with its feet and tail, with one eye directed 

 backwards towards me, and with the other for- 

 wards, scanning the fire as if it were looking for the 

 faces of other chameleons in it, the creature would 

 remain motionless for hours enjoying the genial tem- 

 perature. During the whole time it was with me 

 it never took any nourishment, though meal-worms 

 and other insects were produced for it. When 

 they were presented it would roll its eye and bring 

 it to bear upon them; but neither Mrs. M., the 

 good old housekeeper, who was so fond of Binny, 

 nor myself, ever saw it take one, nor was one 

 ever missed from among those presented to it. 

 The housekeeper was at her wits' end what to do 

 for it, till at last she became pacified, fully believ- 

 ing that it fed upon air ; for, notwithstanding its 



