KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



267 



granules were tinged, and of a bright red, 

 which was the color of the skin that was 

 visible between the granules ; the rest of the 

 skin not in the sun's light, and which was of 

 a paler grey than ordinary, resembled a cloth 

 made of mixed wool, some of the granules 

 being greenish, others of a tawny grey, and 

 others of the usual bluish grey, the ground 

 remaining as before. When the sun ceased 

 to shine, the original grey appeared again by 

 degrees, and spread itself all over the body, 

 except under the feet, which continued nearly 

 of the same color, but rather browner. 

 When, in this state of color, it was handled 

 by strangers, several blackish spots about the 

 size of a ringer-nail appeared, a change 

 which did not take place when it was handled 

 by those who usually took care of it. 



Sometimes it was marked with brown spots, 

 which inclined towards green. It was 

 wrapped in a linen cloth, and, after two or 

 three minutes, was taken out whitish, but not 

 so white as" that which the vir nobilissimus 

 above alluded to subjected to a similar ex- 

 periment. Theirs, which had only changed 

 its ordinary grey into a paler grey, after 

 having retained that color some time, lost it 

 gradually. This experiment made them 

 question the truth of the allegation that the 

 chameleon takes all colors but white, as 

 Theophrastus and Plutarch report ; for theirs 

 seemed to have such a disposition to retain 

 this color that it grew pale every night, and 

 when dead it showed more white than any 

 other color. Nor did they find that it changed 

 color all over the body, as Aristotle reports ; 

 for, according to their experience, when the 

 animal takes other colors than grey, and 

 disguises itself to appear in masquerade, as 

 iElian pleasantly observes, it covers only 

 certain parts of the body with them. They 

 finally laid their chameleon on substances of 

 various colors, and wrapped it up in them ; 

 but it did not take those colors as it had 

 taken the white, and, indeed, they allow that 

 it only took the white the first time the ex- 

 periment was made, though it was repeated 

 several times and on different days. 



Hasselquist's experiments with regard to 

 the mutability of color were followed by 

 nearly the same consequences as mine ; but 

 he thought that the changes depended on a 

 sort of disease, a kind of jaundice, to which 

 the animal was subject, particularly when it 

 was irritated. 



_ The blood, in the opinion of M. d'Obson- 

 ville, was the cause of the change. That 

 fluid, according to him, is, in the chameleon, 

 of a violet blue ; which color, he says, it will 

 retain on linen or paper for some minutes, if 

 it be previously steeped in a solution of alum. 

 The coats of the blood-vessels he found to be 

 yellow, both in their main trunks and ramifi- 

 cations, and he comes to the conclusion that 



green will be the product. Like Hasselquist, 

 he attributes the change of color to the 

 passions of the creature. He holds that, 

 when a healthy chameleon is provoked, the 

 circulation is accelerated, the vessels spread 

 over the skin distended, and so a superficial 

 blue-green color is produced ; but when the 

 animal is shut up, deprived of free air, and 

 impoverished, the circulation becomes slug- 

 gish, the vessels are not well fillet), and the 

 languid chameleon changes to a yellow-green, 

 which continues during its imprisonment. 



Others — the late Sir John Barrow for 

 instance- -have observed that, previous to a 

 change, the chameleon makes a long inspira- 

 tion, when the body is inflated so as to 

 appear twice its usual size, and as the infla- 

 tion subsides, the change of color is gradually 

 manifested, the only permanent marks being 

 two small dark lines along the sides ; and it 

 has been argued, from this description, that 

 the reptile owes its varied tints to the influ- 

 ence of oxygen. Mr. Houston is also of 

 opinion that the change depends on the state 

 of turgescency of the skin ; and Mr. Spittal 

 regards it as connected with respiration and 

 the state of the lungs. Theories upon 

 theories, as varied as the tints which they 

 profess to explain, have been broached to 

 account for these changes. 



Now let us see how admirably the adap- 

 tation of the animal is carried on throughout. 

 The free foot, formed in some of the other 

 lacertians for running nimbly over the sand 

 or through the herbage, with the aid of the 

 disposition of the other limb-bones, is here 

 changed into an organ essentially prehensile. 

 The two wrist bones, which are next to those 

 of the forearm, are articulated upon one 

 central piece, which receives the five bones 

 that correspond to the metacarpal. Three 

 of these are for the anterior toes, and two 

 for the posterior ; and the whole five finger- 

 bones are bundled up in the integuments to 

 the claws — three in the fore bundle and two 

 in the hind bundle, forming a most efficient 

 clinging instrument when applied to the 

 branch of a tree. The toes of the hinder ex- 

 tremities are disposed in the same opposable 

 manner. The creature in its natural state, 

 planted firmly among the foliage, and holding 

 tenaciously on by its feet and tail, varying 

 its color at pleasure in the chequered light 

 and shade, looks more like an excrescence 

 of the tree than an animated being ;* and 



* The Tarandus of Pliny will occur to those of 

 our readers who are conversant with his wonder- 

 ful magazine, where the beast is described as 

 being as big as an ox, and, when he pleaneth, as- 

 suming the color of an ass. But this is but a 

 small sample of his versatility, for " he reflects the 

 colors of all shrubs, trees, flowers, and of the place 

 where he lies, and hiding himself from fear, he is 

 on that account rarely taken.'' — N. Hist.vin. 34. 



