184 ZOOLOGY. [PART II. 



chinks of every ruined wall. In all their motions there 

 is that vivid and brief energy, the rapid but restrained 

 action associated with their limited power of respiration, 

 which justifies the accurate picture of 



" The green lizard, rustling thro' the grass, 

 And up the fluted shaft, with short, quick, spring' 

 To vanish in the chinks which time has made." 1 



One of the most beautiful of this race is the green 

 calotes 2 ^ in length about twelve inches, which, with the 

 exception of a few dark streaks about the head, is as 

 brilliant as the purest emerald or malachite. Unlike 

 its congeners of the same family, it never alters this 

 dazzling hue, whilst many of them possess the power, 

 like the chameleon, but in a less degree, of exchanging 

 their ordinary colours for others less conspicuous. The 

 C. ophiomachus, and another, the C. versicolor, ex- 

 hibit this faculty in a remarkable manner. The head and 

 neck, when the animal is irritated or hastily swallowing 

 its food, becomes of a brilliant red (whence the latter has 

 acquired the name of the " blood-sucker "), whilst the 

 usual tint of the rest of the body is converted into pale 

 yellow. The sitana 3 , and a number of others, exhibit 

 similar phenomena. 



Chameleon. The true chameleon 4 is found, but not 

 in great numbers, in the dry districts in the north of 

 Ceylon, where it frequents the trees, in slow pursuit of 

 its insect prey. Whilst the faculty of this creature to 

 blush all the colours of the rainbow has attracted the 

 wonder of all ages, sufficient attention has hardly been 

 given to the imperfect sympathy which subsists between 

 the two lobes of its brain, and the two sets of nerves 

 that permeate the opposite sides of its frame. Hence, 

 not only has each of the eyes an action quite indepen- 

 dent of the other, but one side of its body would appear 



1 ROGERS' Pcestum. I s Sitana Ponticereana, Cuv. 



3 Calotes viridis, Gray. 4 Chamaelio vulgaris, Daud. 



