12 The Florida Chameleon. [January, 
as a bone. But the scales are transverse, each one as long as the 
pad is wide. They are erectile, too. Now when the animal 
leaps at an object, intending to adhere to it, these scales are shut 
down tight, and the ridges all closed. At the precise instant of 
the impact on the glass which terminates the leap, these trans- 
verse scales are raised, or set on edge; thus there are as many 
ridges as scales, that is, so many transverse pits ; and every one 
of these pits is, by the mechanism just described, of necessity a 
vacuum. Only four of the five toes on each foot are serviceable in 
this direction. As the pads of the toes vary much in size, so 
does the number of the transverse scales. They run from about 
twenty to thirty. Striking an average of twenty-five for each 
toe, and multiplying by sixteen, there would be not less than four 
hundred of these sucking pits, or air-exhausted depressions. 
In the popular estimate, the chief interest in this little so-called 
Florida chameleon attaches to its faculty of changing its color at 
will. Its two extremes of color are a deep, warm, bronzy brown, 
and a pale but bright pea-green. Throughout the summer, espe- 
cially at night, the favorite position of our Anolis was to hang 
suspended, with head up, from the posts at the corners of the 
fern case. In this way they invariably spent the night. It was 
their chosen position for sleep. How often have I taken the 
lamp and approached their case at different hours of the night, 
and found them with eyes tightly closed and fast asleep, and their 
color a bright green. But the posts to which they thus adhered 
by their feet was of a deep brown color, hence the two colors 
were set in striking contrast. Throughout the day, although oc- 
casionally playing with diverse colors, they were for the most 
part brown, and this too although walking or nestling among the 
green leaves. The belief that the color of the contiguous ob- 
ject is mimicked for the sake of protection is, I think, not con- 
firmed by the observed facts. The truth is that in this matter of 
animals enjoying life there is a higher law than that of mere in- 
tention. I shall call it the law of spontaneous expression, which 
has its base in another law, to wit, that a joy unuttered is a 
sense repressed. Why should green be the favorite night-gown 
of our sleeping Anolis? I timidly venture the suggestion that 
it is because the animal is disposing itself for the luxury of sleep, 
its color changes being the utterances of its emotions. In these 
little creatures are united a remarkable agility with an equally 
marked fragility. They delight in sleep, and they delight in 
exereise, and take a great deal of both. But they are very 
