WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 



the green foliage or on the brown trunks or stems of the 

 trees on which it often remains motionless and unseen, so 

 completely disguised is it by its assumed colour. The 

 food of the chameleon consists of insects, such as beetles, 

 flies, and caterpillars, in fact almost any small living 

 creature. The mode of feeding, which is by darting forth 

 with the rapidity of lightning its long tongue, is so well 

 known that it is only in passing we mention it, but it 

 would be well to say something about the means of 

 keeping in our climate the animal during the winter 

 months. 



The reptile requires to be kept in a warm place, and 

 exposed as much as possible to the sun's rays. The food 

 may consist of common black beetles, so troublesome in 

 kitchens, which can be obtained by using the ordinary 

 beetle-trap by which they are caught alive, and make a 

 capital meal. A few gentles, which can always be obtained 

 from the fishing-tackle makers, and which, placed in a small 

 dish of sand in the glass case, soon hatch out from the 

 warmth of the room, and produce a good stock of flies. 

 In winter, in the event of these methods failing, the well- 

 known mealworms can be obtained all the year round, and 

 these, put into a glass or well-glazed saucer, will be taken 

 by the chameleon. 



A little sugar-and- water in a dish is also desirable, as it 

 frequently drinks or thrusts its tongue into the fluid, and 

 seems to like it. Another disputed point has been argued 

 with considerable warmth in reference to the mode of 

 reproduction ; some said that the chameleon lays eggs, 

 which are afterwards hatched, while others declared most 

 positively that they produce their young alive ; thus, as 

 in the old fable, the controversy became hot, and was 

 carried on until the patience of all parties was exhausted. 

 In truth, they were both, at one and the same time, quite 



198 



