152 class reptilia. 



Cameleonians. 



For the single genus of 



Cameleons. ChAmjelec* 



Which is very distinct from all the other saurians, 

 and cannot even be easily allocated with just pro- 

 priety in their series. 



They have the entire skin shagreened, with small 

 scaly grains ; the body compressed, and the back as 

 it were trenchant 5 the tail round and slender, 

 five toes on all the feet, but divided into two parcels, 

 one of two, the other of three. Each parcel is united 

 by the skin as far as the claws ; the tongue is fleshy, 

 cylindrical, and capable of considerable elongation ; 

 the teeth are trilobed ; the eyes large, but almost 

 covered by the skin, except a small hole opposite to 

 thepupil, and each of them is moveable, independently 

 of the other. There is no visible external ear, and 

 the occiput is raised in a pyramidical form ; their first 

 ribs are united with the sternum, the following ones 

 are continued, each of them to its correspondent one, 

 to enclose the abdomen in an entire circle ; their 

 lungs are so vast that when this organ is inflated 

 their body appears transparent, which occasioned the 

 ancients to assert that they lived on air. They feed, 

 however, on insects, which they catch with the 

 viscous extremity of their tongue : this is the only 



* XafxaiXim (little lion) the name of this animal among the Greeks, and 

 especially in Aristotle, who has described it perfectly well. Hist. An. 

 Lib. ii. cap. xi. 



