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LIZARDS. 313 



changing colour when under the influence of excitement, but 

 of all animals, whether terrestrial or marine, none is more 

 famous or remarkable in this respect than the Chameleon, It 

 frequently happens that man, not satisfied with the wonders 

 which Nature everywhere exposes to 

 his view, adds to their marvels 

 others of his own invention, and thus 

 many a fable has been told about 

 the Chameleon. It has been said, 

 for instance, that it could emulate chameleon. 



all the colours of the rainbow, but 



the more accurate observations of Hasselquist and other natu- 

 ralists have shown that the whole change, which takes place 

 most frequently when the Chameleon is exposed to full sun- 

 shine or under the influence of emotion, consists in its ordinary 

 bluish- ash colour, turning to a green or yellowish hue with 

 irregidar spots of a dull red. Like many other reptiles, the 

 Chameleon has the power of inflating its lungs and retaining 

 the air for a long time so as one moment to appear as fat and 

 well-fed as an alderman, and the next as lean and bony as a 

 hungry disciple of the Muses. These alternating expansions 

 and collapses seem to have a great influence on the change of 

 colour, which, however, according to Milne-Edwards, is prin- 

 cipally owing to the skin of the animal consisting of two 

 differently coloured layers, placed one above the other, and 

 changing their relative position under the influence of excite- 

 ment. 



In our cold and northern regions the captive Chameleon cuts 

 but a sorry figure : but in his own and sunny regions, which 

 extend from southern Spain and Sicily to the Cape, and east- 

 wards from Arabia and Hindostan to Australia, it is said to be 

 by no means deficient in beauty, in spite of its strangely- 

 formed carinated head, its enormously projecting eyes, and 

 its granulated skin. Its manner of hunting for the little 

 winged insects, that form its principal food, is very peculiar. 

 Although the movements of its head are very limited, on 

 account of the shortness of its neck, this deficiency is amply 

 supplied by the wide range of its vision, each eye being able 

 to move about in all directions independently of the other. 

 Thus, while one of them attentively gazes upon the heavens. 



