104 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
they are opposed to the three outer toes, connected in the same 
way. 
The Chamaeleon does not grovel like other reptiles. Its 
hips and shoulders are so disposed as to allow the limbs to 
sustain the trunk at a notable height above the branch which 
supports it. 
When not pursuing its prey the Chamaeleon maintains an 
almost corpse-like stillness. But its rapidly shifting eyes, 
moving independently of each other and often glancing in 
different directions, contribute much more than the creature’s 
changes of colour to enhance the strange weirdness of its aspect. 
Nor is this effect lessened, when it begins to stir, by its very 
stealthy and deliberate movements. Having sufficiently neared 
its prey, it pauses while it takes aim ; and the body in general 
is motionless as the tongue escapes from its mouth with incredible 
velocity. 
These strong contrasts of motion and rest, its painfully 
gaunt form unrelieved by any amount of gluttony, and its mar- 
vellous fitness to do the work of its life are the chief sources of 
our interest in the Chamaeleon. As a fly-catching machine it is 
perfect. What seem defects in its organization are truly the 
reverse. We repeat that the Chamaeleon’s feebleness, rightly 
understood, must be regarded as operating in its favour. If it 
moved its legs quicker, its eyes or its tongue slower, it could 
not secure its prey with such fatal accuracy. We have seen 
ten minutes elapse between the first sighting and the final 
capture of a large bluebottle-fly by a captive Chamaeleon. 
During this protracted interval, as the animal with persistent 
caution stole gradually upon its victim, alternately raising and 
putting down one leg after another, no doubt of its ultimate 
success could be entertained. 
In Merrem’s arrangement of lizards the Chamaeleons con- 
stitute the group of Prendentia , on account of their grasping 
limbs. They are more frequently named Vermilingues or 
Phiptiglossi, from their peculiar tongue. 
The Chamaeleon’ s skin is, for the most part, not scaly in the 
ordinary sense, but rather soft and extensible. Small distinct 
tubercles of uniform size serve to strengthen it. The dorsal 
ridge is minutely serrated. Along this and the ventral ridge, 
as well as on the head and limbs, the tubercles are closer, flatter 
and more scale-like. 
The common use at all times of the word Chamaeleon in 
metaphor, its application by the ancients to certain plants and 
by the modems to a well-known mineral, show that the changes 
of colour to which it is subject have attracted much more 
attention than its other peculiarities. In this respect, however, 
