1876.] The Florida Chameleon. 11 
grams, pentagons, and hexagons. No two of these round promi- 
nences, or peach-shaped scale-casts, touch each other. Them- 
selves of a silvery hue, they are separated from one another by a 
thicker cuticle, of a much darker color, thus throwing out the 
rounded casts in bold relief. 
And what is the philosophy of their swallowing this cast-off 
skin? Ihave seen that pretty newt, the Triton millepunctata, 
exuviate beneath the water. Except the rent made at the head, 
which is the starting-point of exuviation, the divested skin was 
entire, even to the very toes, and appeared in the water a gos- 
samer likeness of the animal itself. As soon as it moulted, 
the little thing would turn round and swallow its cast-off gar- 
ment, tucking it in entire and untorn. The toad does the very 
same thing. There must be, | think, some vital economy which 
is subserved by this singular habit of putting up the old clothes, 
or, as our juvenile wag suggests, turning the stomach into a 
clothes-chest. Motive in this matter can hardly be attributed to 
things so lowly. We are reminded of a somewhat similar habit, 
and quite as strange, of the educabilia, or higher animals. Dogs, 
cats, cows, ete., devour their own placenta. The mother dog and 
cat keep the bed of their litter clean by swallowing the excreta, 
Our little “ Lady,” a high-bred diminutive hound, had lately two 
pups. One died in the night. Her mistress was shocked next 
morning at finding Lady devouring her dead baby. All had dis- 
appeared but the head, when her strange work was arrested. 
And so cleanly was the whole business, not a stain was on her 
blanket. Now these animals have no cannibal propensities. Re- 
cently a cheetah, the Persian hunting leopard (Leoparda jubata), 
having died suddenly, came into our possession. The animal was 
in such excellent condition, its flesh so fat and tender, that we 
offered some choice cuts to a number of dogs, Lady being among 
them. It was really curious to observe their conduct. They 
stretched their necks, bringing their noses near enough to smell, 
but not to touch the strange meat ; which done, each turned 
away in solid disgust. Here gleamed the true nobleness of these 
educabilia, a proper sense of the fitness of things. Nature hath 
her mysterious sanctities, and even in the animal reckoning, such 
matters should be promptly put out of sight. 
Anolis can cleave to the glass. The phenomena is precisely, as 
I understand it, the same as with the sucking disk of the shark- 
sucker, Echeneis remora. With a hand-lens I have watched its 
toes while adhering to the glass. The flattened pads are as dry 
