Chap. 51.] 
THE CHAMELEON. 
303 
the stag, but then it produces the chameleon, although it is 
much mere commonly met with in India. Its figure and size 
are that of a lizard, only that its legs are straight and longer. 
Its sides unite under its belly, as in fishes, and its spine pro- 
jects in a similar manner. Its muzzle is not unlike the snout 
of a small hog, so far as in so small an animal it can be. Its 
tail is very long, and becomes smaller towards the end, coiling 
up in folds like that of the viper. It has hooked claws, and 
a slow movement like t'hat of the tortoise ; its body is rough 
like that of the crocodile ; its eyes are deep sunk in the orbits, 
placed very near each other, very large, and of the same 
colour as the body. It never closes them, and when the 
animal looks round, it does so, not by the motion of the pupil, 
but of the white of the eye.^^ It always holds the head up- 
right and the mouth open, and is the only animal which re- 
ceives nourishment neither by meat nor drink, nor anything 
else, but from the air alone.^^ Towards the end of the dog-days^ 
it is fierce, but at other times quite harmless. The nature 
of its colour, too, is very remarkable, for it is continually 
changing; its eyes, its tail, and its whole body always 
assuming the colour of whatever object is nearest, with the 
exception of white and red.^^ After death, it becomes of a 
tbey have seen stags in this country, had really met with gazelles, which 
they mistook for those animals ; Ajasson, vol. vi. p.. 451 ; Lemaire, vol. 
iii. p. 453.-— B- 
Cuvier remarks, that Pliny's account of the chameleon appears to be 
taken from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 11, but that it is less correct. 
He notices Aristotle's account of the eye, which is more accurately given 
than the account of Phny ; Ajasson, vol. vi. pp. 451, 452 ; Lemaire, vol. iii. 
p. 454. — B. The chameleon receives its name from the Greek xa/xai 
Xscov, " the lion on the ground." 
60 See B. xi. c. 55. 
6^ One of those popular errors which have descended from the ancients 
to our times ; the chameleon feeds on insects, which it seizes by means of 
its long flexible tongue ; the quantity of food which it requires appears, 
however, to be small in proportion to its bulk. — B. 
^'^ Circa caprificos." Some commentators would understand this in 
reference to the wild fig-tree, and take it to mean that the animal is more 
furious when in its vicinity. The conjecture of Hardouin, however, seems 
more reasonable. He takes "caprificos" to mean the same as the '^capri- 
ficiahs dies," mentioned in B. xi. c. 15, as being sacred to Vulcan, and 
falling towards the end of the dog-days. 
63 This is another of the erroneous opinions respecting the chameleon, 
which has been very generally adopted. It forms the basis of Merrick's 
