680 



CAME L E O N. 



found many traces both of a tropical botany, and a 

 tropical zoology, even along the very shore of the 

 strait. We know also that great part of the Arau- 

 canian country westward is exceedingly fertile, though 

 it is a country which has been but. little explored ; 

 and as the Araucans kept up a continual war for 

 their liberty with the Spaniards, and maintained their 

 ground from the very earliest footing of the latter in 

 Chili, it is not to be supposed they will, for many 

 years to come, allow any Europeans, of whatever na- 

 tion, very minutely to explore their country ; and till 

 that is done, we must be content with only a vague and 

 traditionary history of probably several species or 

 varieties 01 the lama family, some of which have been 

 vaguely mentioned by Molina and others. 



It is said that the animals, in this part of America, 

 want some of the peculiar characters of the moun- 

 taineers: that, for instance, the pads of callous 

 matter on the knees are much smaller, the hoofs much 

 less adapted for holding on upon rocks ; the hair 

 longer and more silky, and the whole animal of a 

 softer character. 



THE ALPACA (Auchenin Alpaca}. A figure of this j 

 animal will be found in the plate already referred to, 

 from which its general appearance can be more 

 readily understood than from any written description. 

 The general colour of the upper part is various 

 shades of maroon brown, in some places inclining to 

 black; and the upper part and breast are in general 

 white, as also are the insides of the thighs. The hair 

 along the back is very long and very silky, and almost 

 as fine in the staple as that of the cashmere goat. 

 It is an animal easily tamed, and quite harmless and 

 docile ; but when teased it assumes an attitude of 

 defence, and blows and spits at its enemies. Several 

 specimens have thriven well in Europe ; and there 

 is no doubt that this is an animal which might be 

 introduced with advantage in many places. We are, 

 however, not so much acquainted with its habits, as 

 to know whether it would breed as freely and as 

 profitably as the ruminantia of our part of the world. 



Such are the bare outlines of what may be con- 

 sidered as one of the best defined natural families of 

 ruminant animals, and also one of the most valuable 

 in those places of the world to which their structure 

 more peculiarly adapts them ; and it is worthy of 

 remark, that though the places of which they are 

 native, are not the most tempting either for their 

 spontaneous vegetation, or for cultivating, yet that, 

 wherever they are found, matikind have, from the 

 earliest accounts of them, possessed of at least some 

 degree of civilisation. 



'CAMELEON, CAMELEONID^l, Cuvier's 

 fifth family of Saurian reptiles, of which there is only 

 one known genus, the Cameleon ( Chamceko}. The 

 name was applied by the Greeks, who were very 

 well acquainted with those singular animals, though, 

 how they came to call them " little lions," for that is 

 the meaning of the name, cannot be very well made 

 out, as there is not one point of resemblance. They 

 have been celebrated from very remote antiquity for 

 the power which they have popularly been said to 

 have of changing the'ir colours at pleasure, and espe- 

 cially of assuming the colour of the surface upon which 

 they are placed, though much of what has been said 

 upon this subject is, in all probability, exaggeration. 

 Still they are very interesting, and at the same time 

 very singular creatures, standing alone and peculiar 

 among all the tribes of the order Sauna, numerous 



and varied in appearance as these are. The following 

 is a brief outline of their general characters : 



The skin is granulated all over with little points of 

 scaly matter, the interstices of which are, especially 

 on the belly and throat, very elastic, and capable of 

 distension, and when the skin is distended, the scaly 

 points stand up ; but the change of colour is in the 

 intermediate parts of the skin, and not in the scales 

 themselves. The body is compressed laterally, and 

 with a toothed or notched ridge down the back. The 

 tail is rounded and prehensile, and about the same 

 length as the body. The head is short, and mode- 

 rately thick, covered with smooth scales, some five- 

 sided and some six-sided. The nose is generally 

 blunt. The eyes are remarkably prominent, but they 

 are covered by the common integument of the head, 

 excepting a small hole over the pupil. They are 

 capable of a good deal of motion, both in their own 

 proper substance, and in the skin by which they are 

 in great part covered. Each is capable of separate 

 motion, and the two can move at the same time in 

 opposite directions. Hence it is probable that the 

 animal has a double sight, or can simultaneously 

 perceive objects in two directions. But, this is a 

 point upon which it is impossible to obtain certain 

 information, though it is probable that those insects 

 which have ocelli in addition to their ejes, properly 

 so called, have also a double sight. The teeth of the 

 cameleon are three-lobcd, the usual form of true 

 insectivorous teeth. The tongue is fleshy, of a cylin- 

 drical form, and remarkably projectile, striking out to 

 a great distance, and with so much celerity, that the 

 motions of it are not easily observed. The tip of the 

 tongue is covered with a very viscid and adhesive 

 secretion, which is the only organ which the animal 

 uses in the capture of its food. The motions of all 

 the other parts of its body are slow ; but so sharp 

 and sure is the eye, and so rapid the shoot of the 

 tongue, that it can kill insects with great certainty, 

 and in quick succession, as they fly past it. In these 

 respects it differs entirely from the Agaims of America, 

 with which it has sometimes been confounded, as 

 they catch their insect prey by agile motions of the 

 whole body. Cameleons have no visible external 

 ears, and the skin of the occiput is erected into a sort 

 of pyramid. The feet have five toes each, which are 

 divided into two fasciculi, the one containing three, 

 and the other two those which compose each 

 fasciculus being united by membranes as far as the 

 claws. They are terminated by moderately sharp 

 claws ; but the whole of the extremities are adapted 

 rather for holding on with security than for rapid 

 motions along those branches which these animals 

 chiefly inhabit. The first, pair of ribs are united with 

 the sternum ; the others are united to each other, and 

 support the abdomen by an entire circle. The lungs 

 are of very large size, and the animal can take in a 

 vast quantity of air for its bulk, by means of which 

 the elastic skin is extended till the granular scales 

 are wide apart from each other, and the skin is nearly 

 transparent. There is little doubt that this capacious 

 breathing in the cameleon is the foundation of the 

 very old mistake that the animal feeds on air. As 

 already said, insects are its food, and it captures 

 them in great numbers ; and indeed, as the waste of 

 the bodies of animals is srenerally vrry much in 

 proportion to the quantity of respiration, the air 

 which the cameleon takes into the lungs is a means 

 of hunger, and not of nourishment. The tongue, the 



