tain locality and attached to both the place 

 and its people. 



At least I am ready to believe that the 

 Chameleons of a certain southern garden 

 that I wot of called Hollywood, are 

 quite content and do not care to- wander 

 from its luxuriance of vines, its delightful 

 hiding places and its glorious sunshine, 

 living there from year to year, and when 

 the roses have stopped blooming, creeping 

 inside in the hope of warming their cold 

 bones by the roaring blaze of a "fat-pine" 

 log in the great fireplace. 



The proverbial domesticity of the 

 Chameleon-lizard is, however, deceptive. 

 He is a contradictory sort of creature. 

 Like some persons, apparently frank and 

 confiding in the extreme, one finds one 

 can go just so far into his confidence and 

 no whit farther. Instinct sends him to 

 the warm corners; but after you have for 

 weeks warmed and fed him, even while 

 lying gratefully asleep in your warm 

 hand, at some sudden motion he will turn 

 his snaky head and eye you as suspicious- 

 ly as when he first crept in out of the 

 chilly air and hid himself among the cur- 

 tains. 



Still he is not wholly unappreciative, 

 and he has attractions as well as an- 

 tipathies toward the human kind. I 

 count myself favored, in that, during a 

 somewhat close acquaintance with a cer- 

 tain individual of his kind, I was only 

 once or twice given an exhibition of his 

 red flag of wrath, while on the too near 

 approach of some others the red sac 

 under his throat would immediately ap- 

 pear. I wonder if there was some sub- 

 tle realization of their feeling of repug- 

 nance toward him. This red sac seems 

 to be among the males a sign of irrita- 

 bility. I have seen two chasing each 

 other up and down tree trunks and throw- 

 ing out their red sac in a most excited 

 and angry fashion. It is probably, too, a 

 device for attracting the females. 



The strange power of changing the 

 color of the skin has brought forth all 

 sorts of theories to account for it. It 



seems reasonable to believe that there are 

 "two differently colored layers of pig- 

 ment cells in the skin, so arranged as to 

 move upon each other and produce dif- 

 ferent effects of color." Also, that the 

 great lung power has something to do 

 with the process. But what is the cause 

 governing this movement, and producing 

 such different effects at different times? 

 It has no connection with the color of the 

 object on which the animal happens to 

 rest, excepting that his color changes arc 

 limited to greens and browns, which are 

 the colors of leaves and twigs on which 

 he is oftenest found. 



So far as my observation goes, I be- 

 lieve this wonderful power of color 

 change to have been given him as a mode 

 of expression of his emotions and sen- 

 sations — a sort of compensation for his 

 inability to make a sound. Take him 

 when he is having a fit of the sulks, when 

 his plans have been interfered with or 

 his tail pulled by too inquisitive children, 

 or when he is cold and discontented. 

 Then he is a repulsive looking object 

 with his chocolate-brown coat and an 

 evil look in his eye. Hold him quietly in 

 your warm hand. He will close his eyes, 

 or at least one of them, in contentment, 

 the brown will gradually grow lighter, a 

 green spot or two will appear, and if his 

 confidence in you is firm enough he will 

 after a little be quite green and happy 

 and handsome. 



The Chameleon-lizard is of course per- 

 fectly harmless, but for that matter so 

 are most of the lizards. The small negro, 

 or even the large one, will roll his eyes 

 in fear at sight of almost any of them. 

 But experts tell us that of all the species 

 only two, and these natives of only our 

 southwestern border states, Texas, New 

 Mexico, Arizona, are poisonous, and that 

 even of these the poisonous qualities are 

 not conclusively proved. So that we 

 need not stop with the Chameleon, but 

 may by a little search find profitable ac- 

 quaintances among other members of this 

 somewhat unpopular family. 



Katherine C. Penfield. 



'K>7 



