516 Beptiles. 
of the firmness of the rest. From these precautions, its 
motions have a ridiculous appearance of gravity, when 
contrasted with the smallness of its size, and the activity 
that might be expected from an animal so nearly allied 
to some of the most lively in the creation. Though the 
Chameleon is repulsive in its appearance, it is perfectly 
harmless. It feeds only on insects, for which the struc- 
ture of its tongue is well adapted, being long and pro- 
trusive, and furnished with a dilated, glutinous, and 
somewhat tubular tip. With this it seizes on insects 
with the greatest ease, darting it out and immediately 
retracting it, with the prey thus secured, which it swal- 
lows whole. The strange notion that Chameleons were 
able to feed on air, seems to have arisen merely from 
the circumstance of these animals, like all others of 
the lizard family, being able to subsist for a great length 
of time without food. The eyes of the Chameleon have 
the singular property of looking at the same instant in 
different directions ; one of them may be seen to move 
when the other is at rest, or one will be directed for- 
ward, whilst the other is attending to some object behind, 
or in a similar manner upward and downward. It has 
the power of inflating its body to double its ordinary 
size, and at these times it is transparent. It can un- 
doubtedly change its colour, but it is not true that it 
takes that of any object it may be near. On the con- 
trary, its change of colour depends on its being exposed 
to a very strong light; and it only changes from its 
natural dull grey to a beautiful green, spotted unequally 
with red. Africa is the native country of the Chame- 
leons, of which there are fourteen species ; but two of 
them are found also in different parts of Asia and New 
Holland, and one (G. vulgaris) in the south of Europe ; 
but this animal has never been found in any part of 
America. 
