1876.] The Florida. Chameleon. z 
was so watchful, while the others were so stupid, that he won for 
himself the pet term Nolie. Indeed, Nolie became, despite his 
timidity, quite entertaining. For one with so little in his head his 
ways were often smart, and sometimes there was just enough of 
selfishness to make things spicy. If he saw a fly walking in the 
moss, there was first that quick twitch of the head which brought 
one eye squarely upon his prey. This was to reconnoitre the sit- 
uation. Then followed the quickest little poke of that nose like 
ashot,and the fly was taken in and most legitimately “ done for.” 
The captor would slightly elevate his muzzle, give two or three 
champs of the serrate jaws, at least two real efforts at degluti- 
tion, and the prey would disappear. Now in this little act of 
picking out the fly from its entanglement in the leaves of the 
Sphagnum, it is worthy of note that the whole process had all 
the precision of an engineer’s formula, it was so direct and so 
neatly done. One of my children put two small toads in with 
the lizards. As all know, the toad has a projectile tongue with 
a glutinous tip. This is darted at an insect, which is inevitably 
captured, and disposed of in the twinkling of an eye. How often, 
even with so perfect an apparatus, have I seen the toad bring 
into its mouth, besides the prey, some extraneous object, such as 
a bit of leaf or straw. Anolius does its work better than that, 
though its tongue gives it no aid whatever. 
I have just been watching Nolie eying a fly which was walking 
on one of the glass panes of his house. He made a noiseless ad- 
vance of about three or four inches; then followed a spring, when 
he was seen cleaving to the glass by his feet, and champing the 
captured fly. I saw him once intently watch the movements of a 
fly which was walking on the glass. As seemed evident to me 
by an ominous twitch of that little head, his mind was made up 
for a spring; but lo, there was a simultaneous make-up of mind 
on the part of the fly, which at this juncture flew towards the 
other side of the case. Then came — and how promptly — men- 
tal act number two of Anolis, for he sprang as the after-thought 
directed, and caught the insect on the fly, midway between the 
two sides of the fern case. There was surely very fine reckon- 
ing here. And what definite decision and prompt execution! 
At one time one of the feeble ones, as it hung in a corner of the 
case by its adhering feet, to my joy caught a fly which happened 
to walk right before its nose. Nolie had been eying this fly, 
and probably he was only waiting for the insect to be still a mo- 
ment on the glass. He had waited too long. So, at any rate, » 
