CHAMELEONS AND "DOODLE-BVGS." 139 



leap to escape capture, but attempt to hide by burrow- 

 ing deep down between the stems. 



Chamseleons are more frequent in this clearing 

 than elsewhere hereabouts. Three were taken from 

 the leaves of a young palmetto, one of which was just 

 moulting. This handsome lizard is distributed from 

 the Rio Grande to North Carolina. It is also com- 

 mon in the Bahama Islands and Cuba, where it 

 reaches a larger size than in the United States. Its 

 principal food is insects, especially flies and spiders. 

 The harder shelled beetles and locusts it does not 

 seem to fancy. Mrs. L. M. Wallace, a lady living 

 near Orinond, who is a close observer, tells me that 

 she has seen the chamseleon, on several occasions, fish 

 for "doodle-bugs" or the young of the ant-lion, Myr- 

 meleon rusiicus Hag., with its tail. As is well known, 

 these insects construct for themselves a cone-shaped 



Fig. 45 Pit-fall of an Ant Lion. 



(After Oomntock.) 



pit in the sand or humus of an old log, at the bottom 

 of which they hide, and wait for some unwary insect 

 to tumble into the pit, when they quickly seize and 

 devour it. Mrs. Wallace states that the chamseleon 



