SAURIANS. 39 



Their skin is roughened by scaly granules, their body compressed, and 

 the back — if we may so express it — trenchant; tail round and prehensile; 

 five toes to each foot, but divided into two bundles, one containing two, 

 the other three, each bundle being united by the skin down to the nails; 

 the tongue fleshy, cylindrical, and extremely extensible ; teeth trilobate ; 

 eyes large, but nearly covered by the skin, except a small hole opposite 

 to the pupil, and possessing the faculty of moving independently of each 

 other; no visible external ear, and the occiput pyramidically elevated. 

 Their first ribs are joined to the sternum; the following ones are ex- 

 tended each to its fellow on the opposite side, so as to enclose the ab- 

 domen by an entire circle. Their lungs are so enormous, that when 

 inflated, their body seems to be transparent, a circumstance which induced 

 the antients to believe that they fed on air. They live on insects, which 

 they capture with the viscid extremity of their tongue ; this is the only 

 part of their body which has rapidity of motion, as in every thing else 

 they are remarkable for their excessive slowness. The dimensions of 

 their lungs probably is the source of the property of changing colour, 

 which takes place, not, as is thought, in conformity with the hue of ihe 

 bodies on which they rest, but according to their wants and passions. 

 Their lungs, in fact, render them more or less transparent, compel the 

 blood in a greater or less degree to return to the skin, and even colour 

 that fluid more or less vividly in proportion to the quantity of air they 

 contain. They always remain on trees. 



Lac. africana, Gm. ; Cameleon ordinaire, Lacep. I, xxii; Seb. I, 

 lxxxii, 1, lxxxiii, 4*. (The Common Chameleon). The hood 

 pointed and relieved by a ridge in front; the granules on the skin 

 equal and close ; the superior crest indented as far as half the length 

 of the back, the inferior to the anus. The hood of the female does 

 not project so much, and the denticulations of her crests are smaller. 

 From Egypt, Barbary, and even the south of Spain, and India. 



Cham, tigris, Cuv. (The Tiger Chameleon). Another similar 

 species from the Sechelle Islands, with a hood resembling that on 

 the female of the preceding; the granules on the skin minute and 

 equal; it is distinguished by a denticulated and compressed ap- 

 pendage under the extremity of its lower jaw. The body is 

 sprinkled with black points. 



Cham, verrucosus, Cuv. (The Warty Chameleon). A third 

 neighbouring species from the island of Bourbon, marked by gra- 

 nules larger than the others which are scattered among them, and 

 by a series of warts, parallel to the back at about two-thirds of its 

 height. The hood is like that on the female of the common one ; 

 the notches on the back are deeper, those on the belly more shal- 

 low. 



Cham, pumilus, Daud. IV, liii ; Lacerta pumila, Gm. ; Cham, 

 margaritaceus, Merr. ; Seb. lxxxii, 4, 5. (The Dwarf Chameleon). 

 The hood directed backwards ; warts scattered on the flanks, limbs 



* The Cam. trapu, Egyp. Rept. IV, 3; Ch. carinalus, Merr.; Ch. subcfoeeus, Id.? 



