66 THE CHAMJELEON. 



down its cage, fond of being near the light, and 

 constantly rolling about its large eyes. It took no 

 food during the whole of this time; so that, at last, 

 it became lean, and evidently suffered from hunger. 

 It could no longer hold fast by the grating of the 

 cage, but fell through weakness, when a turtle, that 

 was in the same room, bit it and hastened its death. 

 From this animal's being able to support long ab- 

 stinence has arisen the vulgar notion of the Chame- 

 leon's living only on air*. 



YY hen the Chamaeleon is removed from its place, 

 Dr. Russel also informs us that it does not imme- 

 diately change colour, nor does it constantly, in 

 changing, assume that of the ground upon which it 

 is laid. Thus, if put into a box lined with white, 

 or with black, it will sometimes in the black be- 

 come of a lighter colour than before, and vice 

 versa ; and sometimes will assume a brimstone 

 colour. When the experiment was made upon a 

 cloth of various colours, but where the animal had 

 a larger field to move about, the event was the 

 same. — It frequently goes through a succession of 

 colours before taking that of the body nearest to it. 

 When laid on the grass it will, perhaps, from a 

 light earthy colour, first become darker, then black, 

 yellow, again darkish, and, last of all, green. At 

 other times it becomes green at once ; and so of, 

 other colours when laid on other grounds: whence 

 it has been hastily conjectured that the transition was 



Hasselquist, 217. 



