Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/191

Rh has brought me at different times eight, one large and seven smaller ones, apparently of the same family. A large bird-cage keeps them securely, but they are turned out upon the grass, or placed on trees in the garden, for an hour or two daily, while a boy is employed to watch them, catch grasshoppers, and feed them. In the cool of the morning and evening they are not inclined to wander; but when the sun is hot. if they find that they are not watched, they are pretty sure to make for the largest trees, and then there must be a general turn-out of spare hands to look them up and capture them. As their quickest pace is only about five feet per minute, they are never able to get far away, unless too long neglected. There is great difficulty in finding them sometimes, even though we may know pretty nearly where they are, such is their adroitness in concealing themselves.

We have a small gardinia-tree, the top not three feet in diameter, and the foliage not dense enough to conceal one of them, and yet, after half a dozen of them had been placed upon the branches, I have looked for two or three seconds without being able to distinguish one, though on looking more intently I could see the whole without difficulty. So, to enable us to see them when they wander, we tie a bit of scarlet Berlin wool around their loins, which enables us to trace them easily. Sometimes when on the trees the scarlet wool may be seen bright in the sunshine when the little animals themselves are quite invisible.

The chameleon has been an object of curiosity the world over on account of its power to change its color, but its power to change its form is not less remarkable. Sometimes it assumes the form of a disconsolate mouse sitting mum in a corner; again, with back curved and tail erect, it resembles a crouching lion, which no doubt gave origin to its name, chamai-leon, or ground-lion. By inflating its sides it flattens its belly, and viewed from below takes the form of an ovate leaf. The tail is the petiole, while a white serrated line, which runs from nose to tip of tail over the belly, becomes the midrib. Still again throwing out the air, it draws in its sides, and at the same time expands itself upward and downward till it becomes as thin as a knife, and then viewed from the side it has the form of an ovate leaf without a midrib but with the serrate line of the belly and the serrated back becoming the serrated edges of a leaf. When thus expanded it also has the power to sway itself over so as to present an edge to an observer, thus greatly adding to its means of concealment.

I have studied the changes of color with much interest. In its normal state of rest it is of a light pea-green, at times blending with yellow. The least excitement, as in handling, causes a change. The groundwork remains the same, but transverse stripes appear running across the back and nearly encircling the body in a full-grown animal, numbering about thirty, and extending from head to tip of tail. These stripes occupy about the same amount of space as the groundwork, and are most susceptible to change of color. At first they become