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nursery of alligators, and other amphibious animals: on the banks 
are serpents, guanas, chamelions, and the large seroor, or lacerta, 
commonly called the bloodsucker: some of them, though hideous 
in shape, are most beautifully coloured: in some the shoulders 
and dewlap take every intervening shade between the palest yellow 
and brightest scarlet; in others, the dewlap is of the brightest 
azure, contrasted by yellow, scarlet, and orange, in other parts of 
the body. 
The greatest curiosity is the chamelion (lacerta chamseleon, Lin.) 
found in every thicket. I kept one for several weeks; of which, 
as it differed in many respects from those described in Arabia, and 
other places, I shall mention a few particulars. The chamelion of 
the Concan, including the tail, is about nine inches long; the body 
only half that length, varying in circumference, as it is more or less 
inflated: the head, like that of a fish, is immoveably fixed to the 
shoulders; but every inconvenience is removed by the structure 
of the eyes; which, like spheres rolling on an invisible axis, are 
placed in deep cavities, projecting from the head: through a small 
perforation in the exterior convexity appears a bright pupil, sur- 
rounded by a yellow iris; which, by the singular formation and 
motion of the eye, enables the animal to see what passes before, 
behind, or on either side; and it can give one eye all these mo- 
tions, while the other remains perfectly still: a hard rising protects 
these delicate organs; another extends from the forehead to the 
nostrils: the mouth is large, and furnished with teeth; with a 
tongue half the length of the body, and hollow like an elephants 
trunk, it darts nimbly at flies and other insects, which it seems to 
prefer to the aerial food generally supposed to be its sustenance. 
