CURIOUS DWELLERS OF SWAMP AND FOREST. 157 



me what business I had to take liberties with his tail. 1 

 let him come, hissing and open-mouthed, within two feet 

 of my face, and then, with all the force I was master of, I 

 drove my fist, shielded by my hat, full in his jaws. He 

 was stunned and confounded by the blow, and, ere he could 

 recover himself, I had seized his throat with both hands in 

 such a position that he could not bite me ; I then allowed 

 him to coil himself about my body, and marched off with 

 him as my lawful prize. He pressed me hard, but not 

 alarmingly so. Daddy Quashi now came up with the um- 

 brella. As soon as he saw me, and in what company I was, 

 he ran off home, I after him, shouting to increase his fear. 

 On scolding him for his cowardice, the old rogue begged 

 that I would forgive him, for that the sight of the snake 

 had positively made him sick at the stomach. 



Charles Waterlon. 



CHAMELEONS; THEIR HABITS AND COLOR- 

 CHANGES. 



1. In consequence of the incredible stories anciently 

 told of the chameleon, one is hardly disposed to regard 

 that animal as a reality ; it appears to find its proper place 

 in mythology rather than in natural history — among fabled 

 dragons, centaurs, and griffins, rather than among the 

 actualities of the animal kingdom. The chameleon, how- 

 ever, has a real existence ; and, after fiction and fable are 

 brushed aside, a very curious creature indeed remains. It 

 belongs to the Saurian order (lizards). The genus GJtamceleo 

 embraces about twenty species, none of them American. 

 With one exception, the common chameleon, which is natu- 

 ralized in Southern Spain and in Sicily, these animals are 

 found only in the warmer parts of Africa and Asia. 



