404 



HISTORY OF FROGS, LIZARDS, AND SERPENTS. 



greatly distended with air. The cameleon 

 has a power of driving the air it breathes over 

 every part of the body; however, it only gets 

 between the skin and the muscles; for the 

 muscles themselves are never swollen. The 

 skin is very cold to the touch ; and though the 

 animal seems so lean, there is no feeling the 

 beating of the heart. The surface of the 

 skin is unequal, and has a grain not unlike 

 shagreen, but very soft, because each eminence 

 is as smooth as if it were polished. Some 

 of these little protuberances are as large as a 

 pin's head, on the arms, legs, belly, and tail ; 

 but on the shoulders and head they are of an 

 oval figure, and a little larger; those under 

 the throat are ranged in the form of a chaplet, 

 from the lower lip to the breast. The colour 

 of all these eminences, when the carneleon is 

 at rest in a shady place, is of a bluish gray, 

 and the space between is of a pale red and 

 yellow. 



But when the animal is removed into the 

 sun, then comes the wonderful part of its his- 

 tory. At first it appears to suffer no change 

 of colour, its grayish spots still continuing 

 the same : but the whole surface soon seems 

 to imbibe the rays of light ; and the simple 

 colouring of the body changes into a variety 

 of beautiful hues. Wherever the light comes 

 upon the body, it is of a tawny brown ; but 

 that part of the skin on which the sun does 

 not shine, changes into several brighter col- 

 ours, pale yellow, or vivid crimson ; which 

 forms spots of the size of half one's finger : 

 some of these descend from the spine halfway 

 down the back ; and others appear on the 

 sides, arms, and tail. When the sun has 

 done shining, the original gray colour returns 

 by degrees, and covers all the body. Some- 

 times the animal becomes all over spotted 

 with brown spots, of a greenish cast. When 

 it is wrapt up in a white linen cloth for two 

 or three minutes, the natural colour becomes 

 much lighter; but not quite white, as some 

 authors have pretended : however, from hence 

 it must be concluded that the cameleon as- 

 sumes the colour of the objects which it ap- 

 proaches ; this is entirely an error, and pro- 

 bably has taken its rise from the continual 

 changes it appears to undergo. 1 



1 The skin of the cameleon is composed of a sort o: 

 small, scaly grains, and, under ordinary circumstances, 

 is of a greenish-gray colour. The general form of the 

 body reminds one of the lizard, but the trunk is com- 

 pressed, and the back highly ridged or cutting. The 

 occiput, or hinder part of the head, is elevated pyramid- 

 ically ; the eyes are large, projecting far outwards, yel 

 almost entirely covered over by the skin, except imme- 

 diately opposite the pupil. What is still more singular, 

 the eyes are capable of moving independently of each 

 other, taking different directions at the same moment 

 there is no visible external ear ; the tongue is fleshy 

 round, and capable of being greatly lengthened ; the 



Le Bruyn, in his Voyage to the Levant, 

 las given us a very ample description of the 

 cameleon. During his stay at Smyrna, he 

 Dought several of this kind ; and to try how 



,eeth are three-pronged. Each of the feet has five toes, 

 >ut these are separated into two portions (one containing 

 wo and the other three toes) by the skin, which covers 

 hem entirely to the nails. The tail is long and round, 

 md capable of grasping twigs or branches, to sustain 

 the animal. The lungs of the chameleon are so large, 

 that when inflated to the utmost, the whole body becomes 

 almost transparent. With the different degrees of infla- 

 ion, the surface undergoes changes of colour, owing to 

 the variations produced in the distribution of the blood, 

 and not, as has been fabled, by the animal assuming the 

 colour of the body upon which it happens to be placed. 



It is scarcely possible to witness any thing more curi- 

 ous or beautiful than the transitions from hue to hue, 

 exhibited by the cameleon, when aroused to motion. 

 The cameleons are all exceedingly slow, dull and almost 

 torpid. The only part which they move with celerity 

 is their long tongue. This organ is clothed, at its ex. 

 tremity, with a viscid, gluey mucus, and is darted out 

 for the purpose of capturing insects, upon which the ani- 

 mal subsists. As they feed but seldom, and are fre- 

 quently seen inhaling the air, to inflate their bodies as 

 above-mentioned, ancient observers concluded that they 

 fed altogether on air ; but closer attention to their habits 

 has shown that they require a diet rather more substan- 

 tial. Three or four species are well known, and are na- 

 tives of Africa and the Molucca islands. They pass 

 their lives altogether upon trees, feeding upon small in- 

 sects, for which their construction shows them to be per- 

 fectly adapted. 



The Variegated Lizard. This, which is by far the 

 largest in this division of the genus, sometimes exceeds 

 the guana in size. The head is covered, as in the green 

 lizard, with large scales or plates ; the body with small 

 and somewhat square scales, which are so disposed as to 

 mark the sides into numerous tapering annuli or striae, 

 passing from the back perpendicularly downwards, and 

 from the sides perpendicularly upwards, the narrow end 

 of each row alternating with the broader end of the oppo- 

 site one ; and in the younger animals a kind of plated 

 appearance, or continued lateral wrinkle appears to pass 

 along each side of the animal ; the tail, which is very 

 long, is surrounded by extremely numerous rings of 

 small square scales, and tapers to a slender point. The 

 colour in the larger animals is highly beautiful, consist- 

 ing of an elegant, and in general somewhat minute va- 

 riegation of brown, or blackish and purple spots, on a 

 pale bluish-white, and in some parts yellowish ground. 

 The whole form of the animal is rather thick or plump, 

 in comparison with many other lizards : the tongue is 

 broad, flat, long, forked at the tip, and curiously serrated 

 on each side ; the head shaped like that of the Arneivo, 

 to which this species is nearly allied. It is a native of 

 South America. 



The Green Lizard. The common green lizard is a 

 native of both Europe and India. This species is also 

 extremely nimble ; it basks on the sides of dry hanks, 

 or under old trees in the hot weather, but, on being ob- 

 served, immediately retreats to its hole. The food of 

 this, as well as all other British lizards, is insects ; and 

 they themselves are devoured by birds of prey. They 

 are all perfectly harmless, yet their form strikes almost 

 every beholder with disgust, and has occasioned great 

 obscurity in their history. Mr Pennant mentions a 

 lizard killed in Worcestershire, in the year 1714, which 

 was two feet six inches long, and four inches in girth ; 

 the fore-legs were placed eight inches from the head, 

 the hind-legs five inches behind those ; the legs were 

 two inches long ; and the feet divided into four toes, 



