THE CHAMELEON 331 



' Like many other lizards, the Anolis possesses the faculty of 

 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 naturalists 

 have shown that the whole change, which takes place most fre- 

 quently when the Chameleon is exposed to full sunshine or un- 

 der the influence of emotion, consists in its ordinary bluish-ash 

 colour, turning to a green or yellowish hue with irregular 

 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, how- 

 ever, according to Milne Edwards, is principally owing to the 

 skin of the animal consisting of two diff'erently coloured layers, 

 placed one above the other, and changing their relative posi- 

 tions under the influence of excitement. 



In our cold and northern regions the captive Chameleon 

 cuts but a sorry figure ; but in his own sunny regions, which 

 extends from southern Spain and Sicily to the Cape, and 

 eastwards 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 pecuHar. 

 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. 



