"Nil fuit unquam Sic impar sibi."—Horat. "Sure such a various creature ne'er was seen." Francis, in imit. Letter T THE Chameleon tribe is a well-defined family of lizard-like reptiles, whose characters may be summed up as existing in the form of their feet; the toes, which are joined together or bound up together in two packets or bundles, opposed to each other; in their shagreen-like skin; in their prehensile tail; and in their extensile and retractile vermiform tongue. That the Chameleon was known to the ancients there is no doubt. Its name we derive directly from the ChamelÆo of the Latins. Aristotle's history of the animal proves the acute observation of that great zoologist—the absence of a sternum, the disposition of the ribs, the mechanism of the tail, the motion of the eyes, the toes bound up in opposable bundles, &c.—though he is not entirely correct on some Calmet's description of the Chameleon is curiously minute:—"It has four feet, and on each foot three claws. Its tail is long: with this, as well as with his feet, it fastens itself to the branches of trees. Its tail is flat, its nose long, ending in an obtuse point; its back is sharp, its skin plaited, and jagged like a saw, from the neck to the last joint of the tail, and upon its head it has something like a comb; like a fish, it has no neck. Some have asserted that it lives only upon air, but it has been observed to feed on flies, catched with its tongue, which is about ten inches long and three thick, made of white flesh, round, but flat at the end, or hollow and open, resembling an elephant's trunk. It also shrinks, and grows longer. This animal is said to assume the colour of those things to which it is applied; but our modern observers assure us that its natural colour, when at rest, and in the shade, is a bluish-grey; though some are yellow, others green, but both of a smaller kind. When it is exposed to the sun, the grey changes into a darker grey, inclining to a dun colour, and its parts which have least of the light upon them are changed into spots of different colours. Sometimes, when it is handled, it seems speckled with dark spots, inclining to green. If it be put upon a black hat, it appears to be of a violet colour; and sometimes, if it be wrapped up in linen, it is white; but it changes colour only in some parts of the body." Its changes of colour have been commemorated by the poets. Shakspeare has— "I can add colours ev'n to the Chameleon: Change shapes with Proteus, for advantage." Dryden has— "The thin Chameleon, fed with air, receives The colour of the thing to which it cleaves." Prior has— "As the Chameleon, which is known To have no colours of his own, But borrows from his neighbour's hue His white or black, his green or blue." Gay, in his charming fable of the Spaniel and the Chameleon, "scarce distinguished from the green," makes the latter thus reply to the taunts of the pampered spaniel:— "'Sir,' says the sycophant, 'like you, Of old, politer life I knew: Like you, a courtier born and bred, Kings lean'd their ear to what I said: My whisper always met success; The ladies prais'd me for address; I knew to hit each courtier's passion, And flatter'd every vice in fashion: But Jove, who hates the liar's ways, At once cut short my prosperous days, And, sentenced to retain my nature, Transform'd me to this crawling creature. Doom'd to a life obscure and mean, I wander'd in the silvan scene: For Jove the heart alone regards; He punishes what man rewards. How different is thy case and mine! With men at least you sup and dine; While I, condemned to thinnest fare, Like those I flatter'd, fed on air.'" Upon this fable a commentator acutely notes:—"The raillery at court sycophants naturally pervades our poet's writings, who had suffered so much from them. Here, however, he intimates something more, namely, the apposite dispensations to man's acts, even in this world. The crafty is taken in by his own guile, the courtier falls by his own arts, and the ladder of ambition only prepares for the aspirant a further fall." With respect to the air-food of the Chameleon. Cuvier observes that its lung is so large that, when it is filled with air, it imparts a transparency to the body, which made the ancients say that it lived upon air; and he inclines to think that to its size the Chameleon owes the property of changing its colour; but, with regard to this last speculation, he was wrong, as we shall presently see. It was long thought that the Chameleon, like most of the lizard tribe, was produced from an egg. The little animal is, however, most clearly viviparous, and not oviparous, although the tales told of the lizard tribe in the story books are most perplexing. To name a few of them:—1. The crocodile, which is the largest of the lizard tribe, and has even attained The tongue is the chief organ for taking the insects on which the Chameleon lives. By a curious mechanism, of which the tongue-bone is a principal agent, the Chameleon can protrude this cylindrical tongue, which has its tip covered with a glutinous secretion from the sheath at the lower part of the mouth, to the length of six inches. When the Chameleon is about to seize an insect, it rolls round its extraordinary eyeballs so as to bring them to The eyes of the Chameleon are remarkable objects; large, projecting, and almost entirely covered with the shagreen-like skin, with the exception of a small aperture opposite the pupil; their motions are completely independent of each other. It adds to the strange and grotesque appearance of this creature to see it roll one of its eye-globes backwards, while the other is directed forwards, as if making two distinct surveys at one time. Its sight must be acute, from the unerring certainty with which it marks and strikes its prey. The Chameleons spend their lives in trees, for clinging to the branches of which their organization is admirably adapted. There they lie in wait for the insects which may come within their reach; and it has been thought that, in such situations, their faculty of changing colour becomes highly important in aiding them to conceal themselves. The power of the Chameleon's changing colour long exercised the ingenuity of the old naturalists. Hasselquist thought that the changes of colour depended on a kind of disease, more especially a sort of jaundice, to which the animal was subject, particularly when it was put in a rage. M. D'Obsonville thought that he had discovered the secret in the blood, and that the change of colour depended upon a mixture of blue and yellow, whence the different shades of green were derived; and these colours he obtains from the blood and the blood-vessels. Thus he says that the blood is of a violet hue, and will retain its colour on linen or paper for some minutes if previously steeped in a solution of alum, and that the coats of the vessels are yellow; consequently, he argues, that the mixture of the two will produce green. He further traces the change Barrow, in his "Travels in Africa," declares that previously to the Chameleon's assuming a change of colour, it makes a long inspiration, the body swelling out to twice its usual size; and as the inflation subsides, the change of colour gradually takes place, the only permanent marks being two small dark lines passing along the sides. Mr. Wood conceives from this account that the animal is principally indebted for these varied tints to the influence of oxygen. Mr. Spittal also regards these changes as connected with the state of the lungs; and Mr. Houston considers this phenomenon as dependent on the turgescency of the skin. Dr. Weissenborn thinks it not unlikely that the nervous currents may directly co-operate in effecting the changes of colour in the Chameleon. Mr. H. N. Turner, writing from personal observation of the phenomenon in a live Chameleon in his possession, says:—"It has been generally imagined that the purpose of the singular faculty accorded to the Chameleon is to enable it to accommodate Not to go further into the numerous treatises which have been published on this intricate subject without arriving at a just conclusion, we refer to the able and interesting paper of Mr. Milne Edwards, for whose acuteness the solution of this puzzling phenomenon was reserved. The steps by which he first overthrew the received theories on the subject, 1. That the change in the colour of the Chameleon does not depend essentially either on the more or less considerable swelling of their bodies, or the changes which might hence result to the condition of their blood or circulation; nor does it depend on the greater or less distance which may exist between the several cutaneous tubercles; although it is not to be denied that these circumstances probably exercise some influence upon the phenomenon. 2. That there exist in the skin of these animals two layers of membranous pigment, placed the one above the other, but disposed in such a way as to appear simultaneously under the cuticle, and sometimes in such a manner that the one may hide the other. 3. That everything remarkable in the changes of colour in the Chameleon may be explained by the appearance of the pigment of the deeper layer to an extent more or less considerable, in the midst of the pigment of the superficial layer, or from its disappearance beneath this layer. 4. That these displacements of the deeper pigment do in reality occur; and it is a probable consequence that the Chameleon's colour changes during life, and may continue to change even after death. 5. That there exists a close analogy between the Chameleons are found in warm climates of the old world, South of Spain, Africa, East Indies. Isles of Sechelles, Bourbon, France, Moluccas. Madagascar (where it is said there are seven of the species which belong to Africa), Fernando Po, and New South Wales. In the year 1860, a new and curiously formed species of Chameleon was brought from the interior of the Old Calabar district of West Africa, by one of the natives. It is characterised by three horny processes on the head. Many Lizards have singular spiny projections on all parts of the body; but this very well marked species had not been hitherto recorded. Mrs. Belzoni, the wife of the celebrated traveller in the East, made some careful observations upon the habits of Chameleons, which are worth quoting. The Arabs in Lower Egypt catch Chameleons by jumping upon them, flinging stones at them, or striking them with sticks, which hurts them very much. The Nubians lay them down gently on the ground, and when they come down from the date-trees, they catch hold of the tail of the animal, and fix a string to it; therefore the body does not get injured. Mrs. Belzoni had some Chameleons for several months in her house, and her observations are as follows:— "In the first place they are very inveterate towards each other, and must not be shut up together, else they will bite each other's tails and legs off. CHAMELEONS. "There are three species of Chameleons, whose colours are peculiar to themselves: for instance, the commonest sort are those which are generally green, that is to say, the body all green, and, when content, beautifully marked on each side regularly on the green with black and yellow, not in a confused manner, but as if drawn. This kind is in great plenty; they never have any other colour except a light green when they sleep, and when ill, a very pale yellow. Out of near forty I had the first year when in Nubia, I had but one, and that a very small one of the second sort, which had red marks. One Chameleon lived with me eight months, and most of that time I had it fixed to the button of my coat: it used to rest on my shoulder or on my head. I have observed, when I have kept it shut up in a room for some time, that on bringing it out in the air it would begin drawing the air in, and on putting it on some marjorum it has had a wonderful effect on it immediately: its colour became most brilliant. I believe it will puzzle a good many to say what cause it proceeds from. If they did not change when shut up in a house, but only on taking them in a garden, it might be supposed the change of the colours was in consequence of the smell of the plants; but when in a house, if it is watched, it will change every ten minutes: some moments a plain green, at others all its beautiful colours will "The third I brought from Jerusalem was the most singular of all the Chameleons I ever had: its temper, if it can be so called, was extremely sagacious and cunning. This one was not of the order of the green kind, but a disagreeable drab, and it never once varied in its colour in two months. On my arrival in Cairo. I used to let it crawl about the room on the furniture. Sometimes it would get down, if it could, and hide itself away from me, but in a place where it could see me; and sometimes, on my leaving the room and on entering it, would draw itself so thin as to make itself nearly on a level with whatever it might be on, so that I might not see it. It had often deceived me In the autumn of 1868, a pair of Chameleons, in the possession of the Hon. Lady Cust, of Leasowe Whatever may be the cause, the fact seems to be certain, that the Chameleon has an antipathy to objects of a black colour. One, which Forbes kept, uniformly avoided a black board which was hung up in the chamber; and, what is most remarkable, when the Chameleon was held forcibly before the black board, it trembled violently and assumed a black colour. It may be something of the same kind which makes Bulls and Turkey-cocks dislike the colour of scarlet, a fact of which there can be no doubt. FOOTNOTES: |