60 History of Nature. [BooK VIII. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

 Of the Tragelephus, and the Chameleon. 



OF the same Kind is one that differs only in the Beard 

 and long Shag about the Shoulders, and which they call Tra- 

 gelaphon; 1 and this breedeth nowhere but about the River 

 Phasis. Africa is almost the only Country that breedeth no 

 Stags, but it produceth Chameleons; 2 although India hath 

 them in greater Number. In Shape and Size it resembleth 

 a Lizard, but it standeth higher and straighter upon its Legs. 

 The Sides are joined to the Belly, as in Fishes; and it hath 

 Spines projecting as they have ; the Snout is prominent, 

 not unlike a small Swine, with a very long Tail sloping away 

 so as to become slender at the End, winding round and 

 entangled like the Viper's ; the Claws are hooked, and the 

 Motion is slow, as in the Tortoise ; the Body is rough as 

 the Crocodile's ; the Eyes are in a hollow Cavity, and they 

 are very large, near each other, of the same Colour with the 

 rest of the Body : it never openeth its Mouth, and there is 

 no Motion in the Pupil when it looketh about, but it views 

 Things by moving the whole Ball of his Eye ; it liveth 

 aloft, gaping with its Mouth, and is the only Creature that 

 feedeth neither of Meat nor Drink, but hath its Nourish- 

 ment of Air only : about wild Fig-trees 3 it is a wild Beast, 

 but elsewhere harmless. But the Nature of its Colour is 

 more wonderful ; for every now and then it changeth it, as 



1 Antelope Picta. PALLAS. The Nyl-ghau. According to Ogilby 

 (" Zool. Proc." 1536), the Tragelaphus, which is the same as the Hippela- 

 phus of Aristotle, is the Nyl-ghau ; but Cuvier, in the last edition of his 

 " Regne Animal," seems to consider that the Cervus Aristotelis (Cuv.), a 

 deer living in the north of India, is the animal alluded to. Wern. Club. 



2 Chamceleo vulgaris. LINN. Book xxviii. c. 28. There is a contra- 

 diction in this description ; the author saying in one place, " Nunquam os 

 aperit," and presently afterward, " Ipse celsus hiante semper ore." The 

 first portion of this quotation Holland has rendered, " He is always 

 open-eyed, and never closeth hem." Wern. Club. 



3 About the time when they offered sacrifices to Vulcan under the wild 

 fig-tree; that is, during the dog-days. Wern. Club. 



