Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/89

Rh In Loudon's "Magazine of Natural History" are recorded some particulars of two Chameleons, which were sent from Malaga, in Spain, and which lived in the possession of Mr. Slight several months. They were kept unconfined in a wicker-basket in a bow-window, and slept many hours in the day, lying on a projecting ridge of the wicker-work. During sunshine, they flattened themselves, to expose a larger surface to its influence, when they were usually of a greenish stone-colour, and pale. If disturbed, they contracted their abdomen, expanding the ribs, and often became instantly of a dark green, or even indigo green. Sometimes only one side changed colour. The larger was vigorous, and in health; when awake, its eye (of a dark colour and very lustrous) was turned in every direction, the motions being by a kind of jerk, and very rapid, as if in search of prey. Mr. Slight was accustomed to put six or seven cockroaches in a shallow tin vessel, and the Chameleon on its edge, with its head projecting over the brim. After making a circuit round a portion of the vessel it would distend the throat-pouch, and stretching forward its body on the fore-legs, it would suddenly dart out its tongue with such force as to make a very sensible ring on the opposite side of the tin. It would catch the insect in the trumpet-shaped extremity of the tongue, which was retracted quick as lightning, and mastication and swallowing followed. In this manner it would take three or four insects from the vessel, but fed only once in three or four days, and would not eat hard-shelled beetles. They generally slept on the top of the basket, their heads