154 report — 1859. 



and it sometimes oozed out through the nostrils, the palate being cleft ; the skin 

 was dry and perfectly free from perspiration or moisture : and from these facts, 

 and the absence of any liquid evacuation, and the rainless climate of Nubia where 

 we got them, I am inclined to think the chameleon never drinks, but that the moist- 

 ure contained in the bodies of the flies he eats is sufficient for the purposes of his 

 economy. An evacuation was observed to occur every second or third day, usually 

 during the morning feed. On cool days he would wait till noon, or even later, for 

 his feed. 



It is not easy, in dissecting the tongue, to make out its length. I have frequently 

 seen this large chameleon take flies six inches from him ; in several instances it 

 seemed at least seven or eight inches ; and the shortest distance was about an inch 

 and a half. The flies were invariably taken with the tongue, which very seldom 

 missed its aim. The movement is very rapid, so that one cannot be certain of its 

 precise nature ; but it appears as if the red fleshy tip of the tongue, covered with 

 thick glutinous mucus, made the fly stick to it. The tongue, thus thrust forth, 

 appears, in a full- sized chameleon, to be a cylindrical fleshy organ as thick as a 

 swan's quill. Before making a dart, you may observe that one of the eyes, wander- 

 ing about, catches sight of the fly at convenient striking-distance, and fixes eagerly 

 upon it ; and the other eye instantly converges, as if the animal were squinting ; then 

 the mouth slowly opens, the tongue is darted, and the chameleon chops up the 

 insect apparently with infinite relish. Our smallest chameleon could shoot out the 

 tongue to a distance of four inches. 



These animals, leaving the damaged ones out of the question, were of different 

 dispositions. Two of them, inclined to be frequently dark-coloured, were very 

 active, wild, and shv, always trying to get away, always hiding themselves, and 

 biting and puffing at' the least approach; the other three were more generally green 

 and quiet, less shy and wild. The chameleon, therefore, though a very stupid 

 animal, still possesses certain psychical endowments. Different specimens also differ 

 in their degree of vital power, and in their nervous irritability, with which latter the 

 tendency to change colour is closely connected. 



This animal's media of communication with the outer world seem few and 

 imperfect. The eye is the organ on which it most depends ; and each eye being 

 capable of independent action, and both projecting so as to have an immense range — 

 directly backwards, forwards, upwards, downwards, and outwards — the chameleon 

 has in some respects double the amount of power of vision possessed by creatures, 

 the action of whose eyes is consentaneous. The eyeball is, however, so closely 

 covered up with opake green lid, that a very small aperture only is left, and nothing 

 can be seen but what is directly before the eye. Hearing appears to be nearly or 

 quite absent, as we often proved by experiment ; and smell is totally wanting. Taste 

 seems doubtful ; what there is seems to reside in the tongue, mostly at the tip ; but 

 whether it be true taste, or merely such refined sensibility as serves the animal to 

 distinguish a fly from anything else, I know not. When he opens his mouth to 

 bite, he will close his jaws upon your finger, but not on any other substance you 

 may insert ; so that there is some sense sufficiently acute to discriminate thus much. 

 We procured several more chameleons in Alexandria, and brought them to 

 England. A passenger on board the ship had a chameleon from the East Indies. 

 Thfs creature was larger and coarser-looking than the Egyptian specimens, the 

 skin-plates larger, and the green colour duller and coarser. It was fed every day 

 upon one or two little bits of raw meat, each about the size of a fly, and seemed to 

 do very well upon this diet. We therefore adopted the same plan with our Egyptian 

 chameleons ; but they gradually pined away and died — the smallest and youngest 

 first, then the old ones, some on board ship, the remainder after landing ; so that in a 

 few weeks not one survived. 



These chameleons, like those from Nubia, differed in disposition ; one was timid, 

 another obstinate, another pugnacious, and so on. When two of equal size happened 

 to meet upon the same perch, as they slowly strode along it, they would stop with 

 their noses about an inch apart, their eyes would converge till they stared one another 

 full in the face, they came out all over in spots like a leopard, then turned nearly 

 black, at the same time arching their backs and bellies, and flattening in their sides, 

 till they assumed the shape of a couple of flounders ; then they butted at each 



