Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1882 — The Chameleon. [ARTICLE]

The Chameleon.

Among the tree lizards, or those which rarely crawl an the ground and never enter the water, the chameleon is the most noticeable. This singular reptile ha# long been famous tor its power of changing its color, a property, however, which has been greatly exaggerated. Although all lizards are torpid, some of them are quite capable of great activity at oertain seasons, but the chameleon as sluggish in the extreme, being the very sloth among reptiles. When it moves along the branch on which it is clinging the reptile first raises one foot very slowly indeed, and will sometimes remain with its foot in air for a considerable time, as if it had gone to sleep in the interim. It then pats the foot slowly forward, and takes a good grasp of the branch. Having satisfied itself that it is firmly secured it leisurely unwinds its tail, which has been tightly twisted around the branch, shifts it a little forward, coils it around again, and then rests for a while. With the same slow precaution each foot is lifted forward and advanced, the movement being only a little faster than the hourhand of a watch. The chameleon’s food consists of insects, mostly of flies, and, like many other reptiles, it is able to go for months without food, a fact which gives rise to the belief that the chameleon lived on the air. To jndge by externals, there never was an animal less fitted than Ike chameleon for capturing anything as active as a fly, and yet we shall see that the lizard is well equipped for this purpose. The tongue is the instrument by which the fly is captured, being first deliberately aimed, like a billiard player aiming a stroke with his one, and then darted ont with singular velocity. This member is very muscular and is furnished at the tip with a kind of viscid secretion whioh causes the fly to adhere to it. Its mouth is well furnished with teeth, which are set firmly into its jaw, and enable it to braise the insects after getting them into its month by means ol tiie tongue. The eyes have a most singular appearance, and are worked quite independently of each other, one rolling backward, while the other is directed forward or upward. There is not the least spark of expression in the eye of the chameleon, which looks about as intellectual as a green pea with a dot of ink upon it. In speaking of the changes of color in the chameleon, Mr. Wood, thewriter on natuial history, says : “ I kept a chameleon for a long time, and earefnlly watched 'its changes of color. Its primary hue was gray-black, bat other colors were constantly passing over its body. Sometimes it would be striped like a zebra with light yellow, or covered with circular yellow spots. Sometimes it was all ehestnnt and black like a leopard, and sometimes it was brilliant green. Sometimes it would be grey, covered with black spots; and once, when it was sitting on a branch, it took the hne of the autumnal leaves so exactly that it could scarcely be distinguished from them.”