232 CLASS REPTITJA. 



it. It is driven from the kitchens in Egypt, by keeping 

 there a large quantity of garlick. It feeds on insects, and 

 its eggs are about the size of a small nut. 



The genus of the Cameleon was confounded by Linnaeus 

 with the lizards. It was first separated from them by M. 

 Alexandre Brogniart. As may be seen from the text, there 

 are three peculiarities in these animals, any one of which 

 would suffice for the establishment of a genus. These cha- 

 racters are derived from the conformation of the tongue, 

 the toes, and the tail — but the text, in this place, has 

 rendered it unnecessary for us to enter on merely descriptive 

 particulars. 



Authors are not agreed on the etymology of the word 

 cameleon, which has come to us from the Greeks. Some 

 maintain that it signifies little lion, others, that it corres- 

 ponds to camel-lion, each supporting their argument with 

 a pertinacity and violence, exactly proportioned to the ab- 

 sence of proof. 



Without attaching too much consequence to the word, 

 let us examine the thing. There are probably no animals 

 whose names are more, or which have given rise to so many 

 comparisons and allegories as the cameleons, the dragons, 

 the basilisks, and the salamanders. A long list might 

 easily be formed of the prejudices, errors, and falsehoods, 

 which have prevailed and been published respecting them. 



One species of this genus has been known from all anti- 

 quity, and has been long celebrated for its supposed faculty 

 of living upon air, and changing colour according to the 

 bodies to which it approximates. Observation, at the pre- 

 sent day, has done justice to those fables of which this 

 animal was the object. But in the language of the orator 

 and the poet, the cameleon continues to be the emblem of 

 those hypocrites who adopt the modes of thinking and 

 acting of men in power, changing at will, whenever it is ne- 



