188 REPTILES OF THE WORLD 



leon. The body is high and compressed with a rather 

 short, prehensile tail; the head is usually provided with 

 a protuberance at the rear like a cap or hood. The body 

 is covered with granules — sometimes studded with tuber- 

 cular points. Most characteristic are the feet and the 

 eyes. The foot is a grasping organ and shaped like a 

 thick pair of pliers; the division of the toes consists of 

 two on one side and three on the other. It is difficult 

 to describe the eyes. To use popular language, the 

 eyeballs bulge from the head though the eye opening 

 itself is verjr small. Each ej^e is capable of independent 

 and extensive motion; one eye may roll sharply up- 

 ward and the other be directed forward; one may look 

 up and the other down, or backward — in fact, the ej^es 

 perform all combinations. All of the Chameleons have 

 an amazingly long, telescopic tongue which is club- 

 shaped, sticky at the tip and capable of being shot at 

 an insect to a length equalling that of the reptile's body. 

 Lastly, in summing up the characters it should be un- 

 derstood, that while Chameleons undergo wonderful 

 changes of color, they are rivalled by many species of 

 the Iguanidce and the Agamidce. 



The present family is composed of three genera, as 

 follows: Chamceleon — 45 species, inhabiting Africa 

 and Madagascar, southern Spain, India and Ceylon — 

 only two species occurring outside of Africa and Mada- 

 gascar. Brookesia — 3 species, in Madagascar. Rham- 

 pholeon — 2 species, in tropical Africa. 



The Common Chameleon, Chamceleon vulgaris, in- 

 habits northern Africa, Syria, Asia Minor and south- 

 ern Spain. A photograph delineates its characters bet- 

 ter than words. This particularly interesting lizard is 

 altogether arboreal, as are all the chameleons. On the 

 ground it is ludicrously awkward. Among the slender 



