colour of its skin, in a
perfect state of health, is scarcely discernible from the trees and grass,
in which it delights to conceal itself, and is not to be discovered at all
without a very minute scrutiny. It remains immoveable for a length of time,
and its motions are all cautious and slow, continuing to loll out its
tongue, which is long and glutinous, in order to secure the little insects
that are necessary to its nourishment; and I doubt not but it has an
attractive influence over its prey, for I have observed them continually
floating around the cameleon, when scarcely discernible in any other space.
When the tongue is covered with a sufficient quantity it draws it in
instantaneously, and by incessantly repeating the operation, all the
insects within its reach are taken in the snare.

That its health and existence depend upon being in the grass, I am
persuaded, from the change occasioned by placing it in gravel or sand, when
it immediately assumes a yellow tinge, its form is reduced considerably,
and the air expelled, with which the body of this animal is inflated, so as
visibly to reduce the size. If they are irritated in this situation, they
expell the air so strong as even to be heard, gradually decreasing in size,
and becoming more dull in colour, until at length they are almost black;
but upon being carried into the grass, or placed on the branches of a tree,
they quickly assume their wonted solidity and appearance.

The victims of my observation I have frequently wrapped in cloth of various
colours, and have left them for a considerable time, but when I visited
them I did not find that they partook of any of the colours, but uniformly
were of a tarnished yellow, or greyish black, the colours they always
assume when in a state of suffering and distress, and I never could succeed
in making them take any other when in a situation of constraint. The skin
of the cameleon is of a very soft and delicate texture, and appears to the
observer similar to a shagreen skin, elastic and pliable; and it may be
owing to this extraordinary construction that it changes its colours and
size with that facility which astonishes us; but what may be considered as
a more wonderful faculty is, its expanding and contracting itself at
pleasure, and, as it were, retaining the fluid in an uniform manner, when
in health, but exhaling it when in a state of suffering, so as to reduce
its dimensions to a more contracted size. Its peculiar org