THE CHAM/ELEON, 63 



tions are very slow. The lungs are so large as to 

 allow it to inflate the body to a vast size. The 

 structure and motions of its eyes are singular: these 

 are larre and globular, and so formed that at the 

 same instant it can look in different directions. 

 One of them may frequently be seen to move when 

 the other is at rest ; or one will often be directed 

 forwards, while the other is attending to some ob- 

 ject behind, or in the same manner upwards and 

 downwards. 



The Chameleon is principally celebrated for the 

 singular property that it has of occasionally chang- 

 ing its colour. Not having myself witnessed this 

 operation, I shall present the reader with the ac- 

 counts of three persons who have : there appears 

 a considerable difference in the relations; thi^j 

 however, he must reconcile as well as he is able. 

 The writers I allude to are D'Obsonville, Hassel- 

 quist, and Dr. Russel. 



The colour of the Chamaeleon, says D'Obson- 

 ville, is naturally green, but it is susceptible of 

 many shades, and particularly of three very distinct 

 ones ; Saxon green, deep green, and a shade bor- 

 dering on blue and yellow green. When free, in 

 health, and at ease, it is a beautiful green, some 

 parts excepted, where the skin, being thicker and 

 more rough, produces gradations of brown, red, or 

 light grey. When the animal is provoked, in open 

 air, and well fed, it becomes blue-green ; but when 

 feeble, or deprived of free air, the prevailing tint 

 is the yellow-green. Under other circumstance?, 

 and especially at the approach of one of its own 



1 



