310 
to revive, and once they can be got to feed 
and take a variety of food they have a fair 
chance of survival. They must of course 
be kept in a warm place, and no one 
should attempt to keep them who cannot 
conunand a constant supply of living insect 
food of some kind. ‘This species of cham- 
wleon is found in North Africa, Syria, and 
Asia Minor, and also in a few places in 
Spain. It is the species which was known to 
the ancients, and gave rise to the proverbial 
expressions of the chameeleon’s change of 
colour and power of feeding on air. 
Ws" 
great general similarity in the 
appearance and habits of croco- 
THERE is ¢ 
Nile 
Crocodile. 
diles, but 
the N. Afri- 
can species 
(Crocodilus 
niloticus) 1s 
peculiarly 
interesting 
as being 
the real 
original 
crocodile, 
which, says 
Herodotus, 
the Weyp- 
tians called 
champsa, 
but the 
Greeks cro- 
codile, after 
the croco- 
diles which were on the walls—of course, 
lizards of kind. In this connection 
it is interesting to note that the Greeks still 
eall the lizard Stellio vulgaris by the name 
of crocodile, according to Dr. Kriiper (quoted 
in Mr. Dresser’s ‘‘ Birds of Europe”), who 
found this reptile to be a common prey of the 
rave Hleonoran Faleon (alco eleonor@) on 
the island of Myconos. The Nile Crocodile 
is an African species, and also inhabits 
Madagascar, where it is extremely numerous. 
Although it seems to have been very common 
in Lower Weypt even in historical times, it 
is now practicatly exterminated there. It is, 
Photo by 
W. P. Dando, F.Z.8. 
some 
\, NORTH ALDABRA GIANT TORTOISE 
Animal Life 
of course, a fierce and dangerous reptile, but 
the largest specimens do not appear to equal 
in size the biggest Indian ‘“ Muggers “—a 
specimen of the Hstuarine Crocodile of the 
Hast (C. porosws) having been known to 
attain the enormous length of thirty-three 
feet. The largest specimen of the Nile 
crocodile in the British Museum is less than 
half this length. The individual figured here 
is about a yard long, and has been in the 
Zoological Gardens more than three years; 
if came from Hast Africa. 
We 
As one of the species of gigantic tortoises, 
North Aldabra NOw, alas! so rapidly approach- 
Tortoise. 
ing their extinction, Vestudo 
gigantea 1s 
worthy of 
more than 
a passing 
glance from 
the visitor 
to the Zoo. 
There are 
at the time 
of writing 
this no less 
than eleven 
species on 
view in 
tine i on= 
toise House. 
These vary 
consider- 
ably in age 
and size, 
the largest 
being only a few inches short of five 
feet alone the curve of the shell, and 
weighing about six hundredweight. It is 
quite possible that this specimen is three 
hundred years old! This species is now 
quite extinct in its original home, the 
North Island of Aldabra, but a good many 
specimens are still kept im a semi-domesti- 
‘ated state in the Seychelles. These large 
tortoises, both the Hastern species and those 
of the Galapagos, have been carried about 
a good deal, and one of the present species 
has lived at St. Helena for more than a 
hundred years, 
