ANALOGIES OF THE LIZARDS. 163 



IguanidiB, from not having that power, always keep on 

 the ground. These facts we know from personal obser- 

 vation ; they are, moreover, without those dorsal spines 

 common to the Iguanidce, and hence these two divisions 

 represent the two typical orders of fishes, one having 

 spines in their dorsal fins, the other none. The fish- 

 like scales of the skinks, and their short, often obsolete 

 feet, at once explains their analogy, as the short tail and 

 frog-like aspect does of the AgamidcB to the Amphibia ; 

 their large and dilatable throat also makes them repre- 

 sent the Plectogyiathes, or balloon fishes. But of all 

 the analogies to be found in the whole class of reptiles, 

 those of the chameleons are so remarkable, that we shall 

 bring them in more detail before the reader. 



(168.) The chameleons are as perfect representatives 

 of the parrots and the scansorial tribe of birds as it is pos- 

 sible to conceive in two such difierent classes of animals. 

 Different shades of green is the predominant or ground 

 colour of both. In parrots it changes into different 

 tints, according to the direction in which it is viewed. 

 The same change is observed in the chameleons, but pro- 

 duced in a totally difierent way. The tongues of both 

 are thick and fleshy : among birds this is a very unusual 

 structure ; and as the chameleons, by representing the 

 parrots, necessarily typify also the Scansores, we find 

 that their tongue exhibits the two great characteristics of 

 that tribe of birds : it is thick and fleshy, like that of the 

 parrots, but by its extraordinary powers of prolongation, 

 it preserves at the same time a perfect analogy to the 

 woodpeckers, the most typical family of the climbing 

 birds. Let it be remembered also, that no other rep- 

 tiles, or no other birds, possess this greatly extensible 

 tongue, besides the chameleons in the one class, and the 

 woodpeckers in the other. If we look again to the tail, 

 we find another beautiful analogy. This member, 

 although totally difierent in each, nevertheless performs 

 precisely the same functions to both animals : the convo- 

 lute form it assumes in the chameleon, is for the purpose 

 of entwining round neighbouring bodies, as branches of 



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