MENTAL ATTRIBUTES OF CHAMAILEON 
typical and nimble, scaled, creatures that are called by 
thatname. To watch a chameleon in the Reptile House 
side by side with a lacerta for example, will bring out so 
long a series of differences, that it seems almost necessary 
to establish another order for these divergent creatures. 
Their prehensile tail is unique among limbed reptiles, 
and its very prehensility is remarkable, for it only works 
downwards : the toes are bound together in threes and 
twos, three on one side of hand and foot, and two on the 
other. This is suggestive of a bird, and especially of 
the woodpeckers, where, however, there are but four 
toes altogether, grouped in twos. The independently 
moving eyes above the grinning mouth are weird in the 
extreme and not reptile-like ; they are indeed like no- 
thing excepta human being with an inordinate squint, 
and like the eyes of such a being they move independ- 
ently. Then too the tongue, nearly as long as the body 
of its possessor when fully extruded, is an extraordin- 
ary organ, unparalleled in the reptilian series and only 
partially paralleled by the ant-bear, the woodpecker and 
the echidna. The chameleon when it detects its prey, 
an insect for choice, literally “ gives tongue ’’ to the 
extent of six inches or so. To watch a chameleon 
shows that profound mental differences accompany these 
structural differences from the remaining crowd of 
lizards. Its movei .ents are characterized by an almost 
judicial deliberation. It is elephantine in its slowness. 
The reptile is in fact not by any means unlike in these 
particulars to its fellow-dweller upon tree-tops—the 
American sloth. Finally, the lean and really emaciated 
form of the chameleon mark it out as something greatly 
different from the ordinary run of lizards, who are plump 
in comparison. This leanness, however, has its uses. 
The chameleon has, somewhat rashly for so small a 
creature, an ungovernable temper; it literally swells 
with anger, grunts, bites and flashes changes of colour. 
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