12 



found among tan. In winter, its food was put into 

 the animal's mouth; and in summer, spiders, flies, &c. 

 were captured by itself: the tongue was sometimes 

 darted forward so strongly at its victim, that it has 

 been heard to strike the glass sharply. " On one occa- 

 sion," says Mr. Neill, " the colour of the neighbouring 

 leaf seemed to have influenced the colour of the animal. 

 In the morning, the chameleon was of a dirty cream 

 colour, the most frequent colour during night, and 

 when asleep :" in this instance, " it was observed to be 

 of a bright glaucous green on one side of its body, 

 and of a dull leek green on the other. The bluish 

 side was directly exposed to the light of the sun pass- 

 ing through a newly unfolded banana leaf of a delicate 

 texture," and when removed on the finger to the shade, 

 these shades of green continued evident for some time. 

 The animal came from Malaga, and was one of several 

 received by Professor Jameson. It lived nearly a year 

 in Mr. Neill's hothouse at Canonmills. 



In Professor Jameson's Philosophical Journal, for 

 April, 1829, Mr. Spittal has supplied us with several 

 interesting facts concerning the natural history of the 

 chameleon from personal observation on some living 

 specimens received by him from the south of Spain. 

 They measured five inches in length, exclusive of the 

 tail; the colours observed were compared with corre- 

 sponding tints in Mr. Syme's " Werner's Nomenclature 

 of Colours ; " and it is much to be desired that some 

 fixed standard of this kind were had recourse to in 

 determining the various shades of colour in natural 

 history. " The usual colour observed during the day 

 was a mixture of various shades of green in irregular 

 spots towards the head. These, however, sometimes 

 assumed the form of stripes ; sometimes these colours 

 were slightly mixed with yellowish patches, and at 



