BOOK VIII.] History of Nature. 61 



well in the Eyes as Tail and the whole Body : and what- 

 ever Colour it only toucheth, 1 the same it always assumeth, 

 unless it be red and white. When it is dead, it becometh 

 pale ; the Flesh on its Head and Jaws, and at the Junction 

 of the Tail, is very little; and in all the Body besides, none at 

 all. All its blood is in its heart, and about its Eyes ; among 

 the Bowels there is no Spleen. It lieth concealed all the 

 Winter, like the Lizards. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

 Of the Tarandus, the Lycaon, and the Thoes. 



IN Scythia there is the Tarandus, 2 which also changeth its 

 Colour ; and no other Creature bearing Hair doth the same, 

 unless it be the Lycaon 3 of India, which, by Report, hath a 

 maned Neck. For the Thoes 4 (which is a Kind of Wolves 



1 The most noticed peculiarity of this reptile is its change of colour ; 

 and the exposition of this feature in its physiology has exercised both the 

 ingenuity and the imagination of many observers. Whatever the true 

 cause may be, it has little to do with the colour of objects placed in juxta- 

 position, as Pliny maintains : but in a series of experiments carried on for 

 six months by the Editor, on a specimen in his possession, it seemed to 

 proceed from sensitive, though often unconscious, impressions made upon 

 the circulating system of the skin. While asleep, the slightest shaking 

 of the stalk on which it rested produced a change : and while the faint 

 light of a candle altered the tints, a shade thrown on particular parts 

 prevented the colour from extending to them. There are several species 

 of the chameleon, although the ancients seem to have recognised only 

 one. Wern. Club. 



2 Cervus Tarandus. LINN. The Kein-deer. The fact that the 

 rein-deer is subject to great variety of colour, even in a wild state, pro- 

 bably gave rise to the fancy of Pliny, that he took " the colour of all 

 trees, shrubs, plants, flowers, and places wherein he lieth when he retireth 

 for fear." Wern. Club. 



3 The Lycaon was doubtless a species of Hyaena, but it is not easy to 

 identify it ; it cannot be the Hyaena-dog, Canis Lycaon of Fischer, as 

 that species has no mane, and is, besides, indigenous to South Africa. 

 Wern. Club. 



4 The Theus, or Thos, was in all probability some species nearly 

 allied to the Jackal, Canis Aureus, LINN. It is mentioned by Oppian, 

 on lib. x. 74. Hunting, b. iv. Wern. Club. 



