THE CHAMELEON. 291 . 



jaw bite in between it and the row of the upper maxillary teeth, in a long groove. By friction 

 during some years of uiastication these three sets of teeth become worn, so that those on the 

 lower jaw, or mandible, are ground to an edge, and the others on their inner and outer faces 

 respectively. There is great solidity of the large skull at the jaw-joint, and the quadrate bone is 

 fixed to the side of the head, whilst the squamosal, quadrato-jugal, and pterygoid bones are (unlike 

 in all other Lizards) united by bone. Moreover, they are strengthened by the ossification of a 

 membrane which, in Lizards, extends between the quadrate, the pteiygoid, and the skull, and bounds 

 the front walls of the cavity of the ear. The bodies of the vertebrse are hollow in front and behind, 

 and there is a remarkable system of sternal and abdominal ribs. These Lizards appear to eat large 

 insects and small ground birds. 



THE SUB-ORDER VERMILINGUES. THE CHAMELEONS. 



The Lizards of this sub-order are most remarkable in their appearance, anatomy, physiology, and 

 habits, and the well-known Chainseleon, so gi*otesquely formed, and so changeable in its colours, is the 

 type of the only family of it the Chamceleonidce. 



The species are numerous, and are found in Southern Europe, Africa, Asia Minor, Hindostan, 

 and Ceylon. There are no less than twenty-one species in Madagascar. Lately it has been proposed 

 to form them into two genera, one of which is Chamseleon and the other Rhampholeon. 



The Charnseleon has been thus termed after its curious designation by the Greeks. They called 

 it xap.ai\fuv, or Small Lion, and yet a more significant name might have been given to it, for Aristotle 

 described the strange creature with his usual great accuracy. It is one of the most extraordinary look- 

 ing things in Nature, and its flattened body is surmounted 

 by a crest of toothed skin on the thin back. The neck is 

 creased, and the head is triangular in outline, having a 

 pyramidal top. The eyes are large and glaring, and look in 

 different directions, being, moreover, covered with skin 

 except in their centre. The ears are not visible, and the 

 mouth is a slit. A long, compressed, pointed, prehensile tail 

 is usually twisted around some object by way of safety, and 

 the fore and hind feet have digits divided into fore and aft 

 sets, and they clasp their supporting bough very much after 

 the fashion of some birds. The skin is soft, knobbed, or HEAD OF CHAMELEON, SHOWING THE TONGUE. 

 tubercular, lax on the creature, and is like a minutely scaly 



shagreen, and its colour changes in a very remarkable manner. Usually very still, slow, and quiet in 

 their movements, the Chamseleons can suddenly protrude an extremely long, fleshy, cylindrical, worm- 

 shaped tongue, with a curious lobed cup-shaped end, and thus catch insects with singular rapidity and 

 certainty. Indeed, it is the most active part of the animal, which, usually hidden up under leaves, or on 

 boughs much resembling it in colour, does not chase its prey, but watches and waits until an insect 

 comes within the length of half of its body and tail, and then suddenly it protrudes its long tongue, 

 and the victim is stuck fast to it by a viscid secretion. When the tongue is withdrawn it brings the 

 insect into the mouth, and it is then packed away in a groove in the hard palate. The teeth are 

 acrodont in position. The position of the body is high on its legs. 



The lungs are of great size, and the front costae unite with each other on the rudimentary sternum, 

 and the others, including those of the loins, complete their path around the abdomen. This permits of 

 the extraordinary size and expansion of the lungs at the will of the animal, by which, filling itself with 

 air, its outside tissues become, as it were, transparent. This enlargement of the cellular structure of 

 the lungs passes air into air-vessels distributed about the body, and increases the size and plumpness 

 of the creature, which can be diminished rapidly when the air is expelled. 



The Common Chameleon is found in Southern Spain, and the north and south of Africa ; also 

 in Asia Minor, many parts of Hindostan, and in the northern parts of Ceylon. Most of the Indian 

 specimens are of a green colour, uniform, or irregularly spotted and banded with dark green or brown, 

 whilst in African specimens the ground colour is greyish-olive, yellowish, or brownish. The " grains " 



