CHAMELEONS— SNAKES 



31 



Chameleons. 



mauritanica), a species, also found in southern Europe, which attains a length of 

 about 6 inches, and is grey or brownish black in colour, marked with obscure dark 

 spots. It is one of the best known representatives of the gecko family, and may 

 frequently be seen searching for food at night on walls and ceilings, to which 

 it clings by the sucker-like discs at the tips of its toes. 



The remarkable group of arboreal lizards known as chamseleons, 



whose headquarters are Africa, have several representatives in the 

 northern part of that con- 

 tinent. In addition to their 



well-known power of chang- .-?\f;; 



ing their colour in order to 

 harmonise with their sur- 

 roundings, these reptiles are 

 characterised by the peculiar 

 structure of their eyes, feet, 

 and tongue, while their re- 

 markable form and slow move- . 

 ments render them unmistak- 

 able. The North African 

 species include the common 

 chamasleon (Chamceleon vul- 

 garis), of the Mediterranean 

 coasts of Africa and Asia and 

 the south of Spain, G. calyp- 

 tratus of the Nile valley, 

 and C. basiliscus of Egypt 

 and Syria. Chamasleons lay 

 in shallow hollows scratched 

 in the ground from 30 to 40 

 round eggs, which they cover 

 with earth and leaves. The 

 slow movements of chamse- 

 leons are familiar to all, as is 

 also the curious manner in 

 which they grasp boughs, 

 with two toes on one side 

 and two on the other. In 

 contrast to their slow-moving 



limbs is the lightning-like rapidity with which the tongue is shot out, as if from 

 a spring, to capture the flies on which these reptiles feed. 



One of the most dreaded of North African snakes is the horned 



viper (Cerastes cornutus), a species about 2 feet in length which 

 lurks in ambush for its victims coiled up in the sand, with which it harmonises 

 almost exactly in colour. It derives its name from the pair of horn-like processes 

 above the nose. Even more dangerous than the horned viper, and also considerably 

 larger, is the asp, or Egyptian cobra (Naia haie), which attains a length of from 



WALL-GECKO. 



