332 LIZAEDS, FROGS AND TOADS 



the other minutely examines the ground, or while one of 

 them rolls in its orbit, the other remains fixed; nay, their mo- 

 bility is so great, that without even moving its stiff head, 

 this wonderful lizard, like Janus, the double-faced god of 

 ancient Kome, can see at the same time all that goes on before 

 and behind it. When an insect comes flying along, the 

 chameleon, perched on a branch, and half concealed between the 

 foliage, follows it in all its movements by means of his power- 

 ful telescopes, until the proper moment for action appears. 

 Then, quick as thought, he darts forth, even to a distance of 

 five or six inches, his long fleshy glutinous tongue, which is 

 moreover furnished with a dilated and somewhat tubular tip, 

 and driving it back with the same lightning-like velocity, 

 engulphs his prey. This independence of the eyes is owing 

 to the imperfect sympathy which subsists between the two 

 lobes of the brain and the two sets of nerves which ramify 

 throughout the opposite sides of its frame. Hence also one side 

 of the body may be asleep while the other is vigilant, one may 

 be green while the other is ash-blue, and it is even said that 

 the Chameleon is utterly unable to swim, because the muscles 

 of both sides are incapable of acting in concert. 



Destined for an arboreal life, he is provided with organs 

 beautifully adapted for supporting himself on the flexible 

 branches ; for besides the cylindrical tail nearly as long as his 

 body which he coils round the boughs, his five toes are united 

 two and three by a common skin, so as to form, as it were, a 

 pair of pincers or a kind of hand, admirably suited for a hold- 

 fast. 



Among the I guanas , a huge lizard tribe, characterised by a 

 carinated back and tail, and a large denticulated gular pouch, 



the common or great American Guana 

 (^Iguana Tuherculata^ deserves par- 

 ticular notice, as its white flesh is 

 considered a great delicacy in Brazil 

 and the West Indies. Notwithstand- 

 inor its large size, for it not seldom 



Iguana. ° =" ' 



attains a length of four or five feet, 

 and the formidable appearance of its serrated back, it is in 

 reality by no means of a warlike disposition, and so stupid that, 

 instead of endeavouring to save itself by a timely flight, it 



