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CHAMELEONS. 
By Professor J. REAY GREENE, B.A., M.D., F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. 
[Plate III.] 
I N the system of nature Chamseleons unquestionably occupy 
a more conspicuous place than any other family of reptiles 
now living upon our globe. This family constitutes one of the 
three sub-orders under which most herpetologists, following 
Stannius, arrange existing Lizards. On no family of Croco- 
dilians, Tortoises or Snakes can a like dignity be imposed.* The 
structure of the Chameleons is, in many respects, very remark- 
able ; their habits, especially those of the common species, are yet 
more striking. Not even the sloths are so entirely adapted to 
lead a purely arboreal life. Slower in movement than the 
tortoises, the common Chamgeleon is nevertheless gifted with 
apparatus for the pursuit and capture of winged prey, which it 
finally seizes with the most unerring rapidity. Throughout 
the whole animal kingdom no more notable adaptation of means 
to end can be said to exist. Such means are at once active and 
passive ; they are numerous and diverse. The long extensile 
curiously-constructed tongue, the exceptionally mobile eyes with 
their manifold adjustments, the changing skin, the slender 
limbs, specially modified for climbing, and the prehensile tail, 
* On such questions, as to the systematic value of certain groups of 
reptiles, there is more or less divergence of opinion. Thus Agassiz would 
have separated the turtles, as a sub-order, from the remaining tortoises, 
whilst some have suggested a like separation of the family of geckos from 
other lizards. But these views have not been generally accepted. Again, 
the typhlopine serpents differ much in the structure of their skull not only 
from other serpents but from reptiles in general. Yet in the judgment of 
Johann Muller, who is here followed by most modern anatomists, these 
remarkable snakes do not constitute a group of higher rank than that of a 
family (Typhlopidae). Among tortoises and batrachians, also, very notable 
differences as to cranial structure may exist without being accompanied by 
corresponding diversities, at all comparable in extent or apparent importance, 
in other parts of their organization. Extinct reptiles, such as Ichthyosaurus, 
are excluded from this comparison. 
NEW SERIES, VOL. IV. NO. XIII. 
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