NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 337 



cerning the nature of the animal, in a place where it 

 was so frequently found, the inhabitants told him that it 

 would assume the colour of a piece of cloth, or other 

 painted or coloured substance, which might be put be- 

 fore 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 Denmark replies, ' Ex- 

 cellent, i'faith, of the camelion's dish : I eate the ayre 

 promise-cramm'd, you cannot feed capons so.' 



These qualities, of changing colour and living on air, 

 have been attributed to it from the earliest times. The 

 first is well founded ; the last fabulous, but the fable has 

 been fortified by the power possessed by the reptile of 

 living in ai:)parently good health for a long time — many 

 weeks — without visibly taking any sustenance. 



In the stomach of one dissected by Hasselquist, he 

 found the remains of various insects, — tipula3, coccinellse, 

 and butterflies ; and, in its droppings, he found part of 

 an entire ear of barley, which he characterises justly as 

 very singular.* He kept one alive for a considerable 

 time, and applied himself to observations on its habits. 



He could never see that it assumed the colour of any 

 painted object presented to its view, though he made 

 many experiments with all kinds of colours, on different 

 things — flowers, cloth, paintings, &c. Its natural colour 

 was iron-gray, or black mixed with a little gray. This 

 it sometimes changed, and became entirely of a brim- 

 stone yellow. That was the colour which he saw it most 

 frequently assume, with the exception of the hue first 

 mentioned. He had seen it change to a darker yellow. 



* The presence of the grain may be accounted for by tlie presence 

 of an insect on it, when the chameleon, with the tip of its adhesive 

 tongue, may have brought away the grain with its uatmal jjrey. 



Q 



