ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
149 
air is forced out, the chameleon resumes its ordinary size. 
The limbs are fashioned for a purely arboreal life, the toes 
being divided into two sets, one anterior and the other 
posterior, so that a grasping organ is produced, and the 
tail being also very prehensile, the reptile has a firm 
hold of the branch on which it lives, and its colour 
being generally toned down to its surroundings, it waits 
patiently until some passing insect has settled within 
reach of its long worm-dike tongue, which can be thrust 
out to a great distance, and as it is sticky at its distended 
free end, the insect in being struck is glued on to the tip ; 
the tongue is then rapidly withdrawn into the mouth where 
the insect is pressed off the tongue against the divided 
palate and swallowed. The eyes also are very extraordi¬ 
nary, as they are minute round holes in the centre of 
two confluent scaly eyelids, and, moreover, each can look 
in a different direction from the other. Only one species 
of chameleon is found in Asia, viz., C . vulgaris, also com¬ 
mon in Southern Europe, but many species occur in 
Africa, and two species in Madagascar alone, and one 
of the latter is provided with horns on its head, and is 
called the Rhinoceros Chameleon. 
The great Tree Gecko, Gecko veras, and which, like 
the generality of its kind, has adhesive discs on the under 
surfaces of its feet, is usually exhibited in one of the 
cages in this verandah. Its skin also is subject to much 
variation in colour, and the outer pellicle is frequently 
shed as in reptiles generally. The character of the tongue 
has already been indicated. This is the lizard which is 
known as the Tuck-too , from its peculiar call, which is 
one of the most characteristic sounds heard in the forests 
of Burma and of the Malayan peninsula, from sun-down 
