THE DRAMA OF LIFE 



39 



a matter of great advantage that yellow and black salaman- 

 ders should lose their yellowness in a black-soiled coun- 

 try, it is plain that the non-susceptible tjrpes would be 

 ehminated, while the susceptible types would survive and 

 multiply after their kind. 



We are accustomed to think of the chameleon's colour- 

 change in connexion with protection, but it seems also 

 to have a distinctly repellent value. Mr. Cyril Crossland 

 has given an animated 

 account of a chameleon 

 frightening off a fox 

 terrier which attacked 

 it. At first the reptile 

 tried to run away, but 

 that is not its strong 

 point ! ' In a few 

 seconds the impossi- 

 bility of escape seemed 

 to reach the animal's 

 brain, when it at once 

 turned round and 

 opened its great pink 

 mouth in the face of 

 the advancing foe, at 

 the same time rapidly 

 changing colour, be- 

 coming almost black. 



This ruse succeeded , ^ r. os, ^ i, , ^ . ■ 



Fig. 15. — Common otarnsh (Astenas 



every time, the dog rubens) regenerating lost parts. It 



. • rr , > shows at the top two arms which are 



turmng off at once . ^^^^ beginning to be regrown. The 



Mr. Crossland points largest of the five arms has been 



. , previously regrown double. (After 



out that in natural Mcintosh.) 



