54 LACE 
that of ferpents and feveral oviparous quadrupeds. It 
was known to Ariftotle and Pliny, that in temperate re¬ 
gions, where there is fome degree of winter, the chame¬ 
leon retires, during the cold weather, into holes of rocks 
ot other retreats, where it probably fuffers hybernation, 
or becomes torpid, till the return of warmth again re- 
ftores the languid energy of its functions. When it is 
carried from its native country into others only a little 
colder, it refufes nourifhment almoft entirely 5 keeps it- 
felf fixed continually on a branch or fome fimilar body, 
only moving its eyes occafionally, and foon dies. The fe¬ 
male lays from nine to twelve eggs every year. The eggs 
are oval, their greater diameter being about feven or 
eight lines, and they are covered by a foft membrane, 
like thofe of the guana, of fea-tortoifes, &c. The cha¬ 
meleon is found in all the warm countries both of the 
Old and New Worlds, in Mexico, in Africa, at the Cape 
of Good Hope, in Ceylon, Amboyna, &c. It has been 
the lot of this animal to intereft mankind in a variety of 
ways; having been the fubjeft of many ridiculous tales 
and agreeable fables, mixed with abfurd and fnntaftic fu- 
perftitions. In Africa, particularly near the rivers Sene¬ 
gal and Gambia, it is the object of religious veneration. 
In fome of thefe di ft rifts, the negroes are enjoined by their 
religious inftructors to afiift the chameleon, when it is 
obferved to be in any danger or difficulty ; and yet, when 
dead, they do not fcruple to dry its flefh and eat it. The 
Moors and Arabs of Barbary carry the dried {kins of cha¬ 
meleons about their necks, as an amulet to preferve them 
from the malign influence of an evil eye. 
The popular error, of the chameleon living on air 
alone, is thought to have arifen from the long abflinence 
which this animal can occafionally fupport; inllances hav¬ 
ing, it is faid, occurred of its pafling feveral months with¬ 
out any apparent nourifhment. This, though afferted by 
refpeflable writers, is contradifted by the obfervations of 
the ingenious Sonnini, who, during his travels in Egypt, 
had an opportunity of afeertaining this circumftance, and 
actually did beftow fome pains, as appears from his writ¬ 
ings, to determine this point to his fatisfadtion. “ It is 
now well known (fays Sonnini) that the changing of the 
colours in the chameleons is not to be aferibed to the ob¬ 
jects prefented to them ; that their different affections in- 
creafe or diminifh the intenfity of the tints with which 
the very delicate fkin which covers them is, as it were, 
marbled ; that they are not fatisfied with nourifhment fo 
unfubflantial as air; that they require more folid aliment, 
and fwallow flies and other infedts; and that, finally, the 
marvellous (lories which have been told refpefting this 
fpecies of lizard are merely a tiffue of fictions which 
have difgraced the fcience of nature down to this day. 
I have preferved fome chameleons ; not that I was tempted 
to repeat the experiment of Cornelius le Bruyn, who, af¬ 
ter having gravely affured us, that the chameleons which 
he kept in his apartment at Smyrna lived on air, adds that 
they died one after another in a very fort Jpace of time-, but I 
wifhed to fatisfy myfelf to what a point they would fubfift 
without food. I had employed every precaution to pre¬ 
vent entirely their having any, without ceafing to be ex- 
pofed to the open air. They lived thus for twenty days; 
but what kind of life ? , From being plump, as they were 
when I caught them, they foon became extremely thin. 
With their good plight they gradually loft their agiiity 
and their colours ; the fkin became livid and wrinkled ; 
it adhered clofe to the bone, fo that they had the appear¬ 
ance of being dried before they ceafed to exift.” 
( 3 . The Cuapapalcatl, or Mexican chameleon, is thus de- 
feribed by Seba: The back is very crooked; the body 
thick, and of an ugly form. The head, however, is or¬ 
namented by a triangular crown of a hard bony fubllance ; 
the angular fides of which are not toothed, but are fringed 
with tubercles all round like rows of pearls, as well as in 
the forehead and nofe. The throat and all the lower part 
of the body appears fet with law-like teeth 3 the tail, all 
R T A. 
but the curled end, is of a fimilar appearance. The back 
and venter are of a deep cinereous grey. The curled tail 
is belted with bands. The fides of the venter are of a 
pale cinereous yellow, covered with finall round reddifh 
feales variegated and (haded like marble. The tail of the 
female is more curled than that of the male. Laur. No. 59. 
Seba, t. 8a. f. 1. 
S. The great-headed chameleon. In the'Phil. Tranf. for 
1768, Mr. Parfons gave a figure and defeription of a cha¬ 
meleon, that had been fent along with other fubje&s of 
natural hiftory to one of his friends, but of which he 
could not learn the native country. I»; might have been 
called- with more propriety the large-crefted chameleon ; 
for it did not differ, in any remarkable degree, from the 
other chameleons, either of the Old or New World, ex¬ 
cept in the form of its creft ; this appendage was not con¬ 
fined to the back of the head, but extended forwards, in 
two indented protuberances, to the tip of the muzzle 
over the noftrils. It mull require additional obfervations 
to determine whether this individual, which Mr. Parfons 
has deferibed with great accuracy, belongs to a conftantly- 
different race, or if it be only an accidental variety. 
46. Lacerta Africana, the African chameleon : colour 
blackifh, with a white ftripe on the back ; crown of the 
head carinate ; toes all connected, but the claws diftindl; 
bottoms of the feet very hard and firm. This, fays Seba, 
came from the coafts of Barbary, and is one of the largeft 
yet known: along the back, to the end of the tail, runs 
a pure white ftripe, bounded by a broad blackifh band : 
the reft of the animal is variegated with pale cinereous 
undulations. In the fpecific charadter, as given by Dr. 
Gmelin, the word nigricans ffiould be fubftituted for nigra , 
fince the (tripes alone on the top of the back are of a 
black colour, as is evident from the defeription and figure 
of Seba. 
47. Lacerta purnila, the dwarf chameleon : body bluifh 
on each fide, marked with two yellowifh lines. This, ac¬ 
cording to Seba’s defeription and figure, has the head 
fomewhat flatter than the former, though (till elevated to¬ 
wards the middle part: it is alfo edged on each fide by a 
denticulated margin. The body is of a bluifh colour, 
marbled or variegated with white. It may welLbe doubt¬ 
ed, however, whether either this or the former can pro¬ 
perly he confidered in any other light than as varieties of 
the common or firft-deferibed fpecies. Cepede confiders 
them both as varieties. 
VIII. Collar double 5 abdominalfealesfquare. 
48. Lacerta ameiva, the ameiva:. tail verticillate, or 
furrounded by rings of feales, and long; thirty fquared 
feales on the belly arranged in eight rows; a double 
wrinkled collar on the under fide of the neck only. 
The hiftory of this fpecies labours under more ambi¬ 
guities than that of any other oviparous quadruped. The 
name ameiva, or ameira, has been applied to other lizards 
belonging to very different fpecies. The real ameiva has 
received a number of names in different countries; fuch 
as temapara, taletec, and tamacolin ; which very names have 
likewife been applied to other fpecies, particularly to the 
guana. Befides thefe, the animal itfelf is liable to confi- 
derable variation in its colours, according to its age and 
fex, and to the climate in which it lives, or to the feafon. 
of the year ; fo that different individuals of the fame fpe¬ 
cies have been confidered as forming fo many diftinct fpe¬ 
cies. Seba has no lefs than feven figures, diftinguifhed 
by different names. To reftore precifion to this part of 
natural hiftory, the name ameiva is here exclusively appro¬ 
priated to a lizard that is found in both Americas, and 
which has confiderable connection, in feveral refpeCts, 
with the nimble lizard and the green fpecies of our more 
temperate regions. At firft fight, it may be confounded 
with one or other of thefe ; but a very flight examination 
is fufficierit to point out the difference. It wants the dou¬ 
ble collar, compofeu of large feales, which is always 
a found 
