44 REPTILIA. 



Steltio phyllums, Schn.: Lacerta plainra, White, New South 

 Wa., p. 246, f. 2.(1) Grey marbled with brown above; com- 

 pletely covered with small pointed tubercles. 



We are compelled to establish 



FAMILY V, 

 CHAM^LEONIDA, 

 For the single geniis^ 



CHAMiELEO,(2) 



Or the Chameleons, which is very distinct from all other saurian 

 genera, and is not even easily intercalated in their series. 



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 susceptible of 

 great extension; 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 ex- 

 ternal ear, and the occiput pyramidically elevated. Their first ribs 

 are joined to the sternum; the following ones are extended each to 

 its fellow on the opposite side, so as to enclose the abdomen by an 

 entire circle. Their lungs are so enormous, that when inflated, 

 their body seems to be transparent, a circumstance which induced 

 the; ancients to believe that they fed on air. They live on insects 

 which they capture with the viscid extremity of their tongue, the 

 only part of their body which seems to be endowed with quickness 

 of motion, as in every thing else they are remarkable for their ex- 

 cessive slowness. The great extent of theii* lungs is probably the 

 cause of their faculty of changing colour, which takes place, not as 

 is thought in conformity with the hue of the 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 degrfee to return to the skin, and even colour that fluid more 



(1) Referred by Daudin to Siellio; why, it is difficult to say. 



(2) XafAAtxioov (Little Lion), the Grecian name of this animal. Aristotle, who 

 uses it, has also given an excellent description of it. Hist. An, Lib. 11, cap. xi. 



