NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
115 
the intervening twigs and, pausing only to take aim, shot out 
its tongue and caught one of the feebly flapping free wings ; 
having got this into its mouth, it commenced a tug-of-war 
jowl to jowl, and succeeded in wrenching the whole moth 
from its companion’s jaws. The poor moth’s fur was flying 
in the air, and the first chameleon’s mouth was woolly with 
it — that was all the share of the spoils that he was destined 
to receive. 
The way these chameleons fight is shocking. I have 
three electric light cords with branches tied to them at a 
height of five feet from the ground ; each has two chameleons 
in residence. More than two are not tolerated ; introduce a 
third, and the two original inhabitants hurry towards it open- 
mouthed, and go faster than I have ever seen chameleons go 
before. As a preliminary, when face to face they generally 
sway their bodies from side to side, and if the intruder does 
not at this juncture turn tail and cast himself off to the ground, 
as is generally the case, the attack commences. One chameleon 
I had was very ingenious : he placed his head on the branch, 
which, of course, was vertical, and his one rostral and two 
occipital or supra-ocular horns would be pointing downwards, 
and then he advanced on the foe and with these fixed bayonets 
would sweep him off ; sometimes the foe would grasp one of 
the horns in its hand and a tussle begin. 
They then bite each other hard, and I have even seen the 
one mount the other’s back, and, digging its claws in, continue 
the attack, holding on so hard that I had the greatest difficulty 
in disengaging its grip. Several times I have seen one grasp 
the other’s arm in most human fashion and then butt it with 
its armoured head. I was very interested in this, for hitherto 
I had considered these horns as merely extravagant growths, 
as in many species of beetles. 
One chameleon in throwing himself off the branch was 
injured and lay on its side, the hind limbs and tail being 
paralysed. When put on the branch, it dragged them after 
it very helplessly, and in one minute the tail and hind limbs 
and posterior half of the body were almost white, the rest of 
the body being dark green verging on black. As it did not 
recover in three minutes, I anaesthetised it. 
