34 



Chameleons.- 



-REPTILES.- 



-Sehpests. 



upon air. They bad observed its variatiou in form, 

 according as its lungs were distended or not with air, 

 and were familiar with its faculty of changing colour. 

 These peculiarities were highly exaggerated by the 

 early writers ; and tlie fictions invented by them were 

 still further embellished by the poets, who made the 

 poor creature the emblem of hypocrisy and incon- 

 stancy. It is a dull, slow animal, languid and heavy 

 in its movements, often remaining in the same posi- 

 tion for hours together, basking motionless in the rays 

 of the sun. In their natural state they live entirely 

 amongst the branches of trees, and their mode of 

 progression is ludicrous in the extreme. Thej' can 

 neither walk on a plane surface nor swim ; but, from 

 the structure of their pincer-like feet and their prehen- 

 sile tail (which serves them as a fifth limb), they are 

 able to cling to the boughs with great tenacity. When 

 a chameleon wishes to change its position, it begins by 

 separating the two sets of toes of one of the fore legs ; it 

 then bends the fore arm, raises it, and carries it slowly 

 forwards. For a short time this foot remains suspended, 

 as if the creature felt a degree of uncertainty as to the 

 point to which to guide it, groping about with it in all 

 directions, in order to meet with some object upon which 

 to rest. When it has found this, it appears as if it 

 wished to ascertam the solidity of its resting-place ; and 

 it is only when satisfied upon that subject, that the two 

 sets of toes lay hold of it and take a firm grasp. Imme- 

 diately after this, the hind foot on the opposite side 

 begins to execute a similar manoeuvre. Then the other 

 fore foot unfolds its pinCer-like toes, cautiously moves 

 forward, and is soon succeeded by the opposite hinder 

 extremity. Then, but not tdl then, the tail begins to 

 untwist ilself from its coil round the substance it had 

 previously seized to support itself, and follows the move 

 made by the other members. So they progress with 

 great slowness and regularity, preserving all the time 

 a ridiculous look of afl'octed gravity. The only part of 

 the animal which moves with quickness is its tongue. 

 The food of the Chameleons consists of insects and 

 their larviE, &o ; and they will remain motionless, 

 perched upon a branch, watching for hours their uncon- 

 scious prey. Tlie moment it stirs, the tongue is darted 



at it ; the insect is caught and swallowed in an instant. 

 Mr. Slight fed his pets upon cockroaches. " I was 

 accustomed," he saj's, " to put six or seven in a shallow 

 tin vessel, and to place the Chameleon on its edge, its 

 head projecting over the brim, to which its forceps were 

 generally so firmly attached that it was often difficult 

 to remove them. After making a circuit round some 

 portion of the circle, the animal would distend the pouch 

 beneath the jaws, expanding them two or three times 

 in a trifling degree ; and, stretching forwards its body 

 on the fore legs, it would suddenly dart out its tongue 

 with such force as to make a very sensible ring or noise 

 on the opposite side of the tin ; would catch the beetle 

 or roach on the trumpet-shaped extremity of the tongue, 

 which was retracted as quick as lightning, and [masti- 

 cation and] deglutition followed." These individuals 

 observed by Mr. Slight, did not feed more than once 

 in three or four days. Like the rest of the Lizard 

 tribe, they can, indeed, enihire a long-continued absti- 

 nence, apparently without injury. Hasselquist kept one 

 twenty-four days, without giving it the slightest chance 

 of getting any food. It gradually, however, he says, 

 began to get thin ; it would fall back when it was 

 climbing in its cage, and at the end of that period an 

 accident put an end to its life. Mr. Martin, however, 

 tells us that he has known individuals live for months 

 without eating. The female deposits her eggs in holes 

 made by her in the ground ; she then covers them with 

 earth, which she scratclies up with her feet as cats 

 do when they cover their faeces, and over all places a 

 layer of dry leaves. The eggs are often as many as 

 thirty, and are round, with a calcareous shell, white, 

 spotless, and very porous. The male is distinguished 

 from the female by the base of the tail being thickened. 



Out of the eighteen species enumerated, seven are 

 natives of Madagascar. 



THE FORK-NOSED CHAMELEON [Chameleo Hfurnts), 

 is singular from the shape of the head. The crown 

 is flat; but the muzzle is prolonged into two distinct 

 branches, which are compressed, strait, and deutated 

 along the upper and under margins. The object of 

 this strange formation is unknown, as the animal has 

 not been much observed in its native haunts. 



Okder II.— serpents (Ophidia). 



The passage from the Lizards to the Serpents is by 

 a succession of very gradual modifications of develop- 

 ment. In general form, as we have seen in treating of 

 the former animals, some of the species approach very 

 nearly to that of the latter— such as the BHnd-worm 

 {Angids fragilis), &c.— so much so, indeed, that some 

 authors have considered Lizards and Serpents as con- 

 stituting only one order. Serpents difler, however, in 

 some important respects; and all zoologists are now 

 agreed in forming them into a distinct order. 



Serpents are reptiles clothed in a scaly skin ; the 

 body being always long and nearly cylindrical, though 

 more or less produced into a point behind. The head 

 is continuous with the body, there being nothing like a 



neck visible. Certain species have the body and tail 

 very slender and nearly filiform ; this is especially the 

 case with those which inhabit trees. Others, like the 

 Vipers, &c., have a short tail. In the Boas and Pythons 

 this part of the body is prehensile ; and in the water- 

 snakes it is more or less flattened, so as to act some- 

 what like a fin. None of the serpents have any crest, 

 cither on the back or tail, such as we see in many of 

 the Lizard order. The skin in many species is suscep- 

 tible of a certain degree of extension ; and the parti- 

 cular disposition and arrangement of the scales, which 

 cover it and the head, form good characters for assisting 

 in forming genera and species. Serpents change their 

 skin pretty often, an operation which is generally known 



