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Show 44 REPTILIA. Stellio pltylluru , chn.; Lacerta platura, White, New South Wa., p. 246, f. 2.(1) Grey marbled with brown above; completely covered with small pointed tubercles. We are compelled to establish FAMILY V, CHAMJE.LEONIDA, For the single genus, CnAMJEI .. Eo,(2) Or the Chameleous, which is very distinct from all other saurian genera, and is not even easily intercalated in their series. Their skin is roughened by scaly granules, their body compressed, and the back-if we may so express it-trenchant; tail round and prehensile; five toes to each foot, but divided into two bundles, one containing two, the other three, each bundle being united by the skin down to the nails; the tongue fleshy, cylindrical, and susceptible o£ great extension; teeth trilobate; eyes large, but nearly covered by the skin, except a small hole opposite to the pupil, and possessing the faculty of moving independently of each other; no visible ex· ternal ear, and the occiput pyramidically elevated. Their first ribs • are joined to the sternum; the following ones are extended each to its fellow on the opposite side, so as to enclose the abdomen by an entire circle. Their lungs are so enormous, that when inflated, their body seems to be transparent, · a circumstance which induced the. ancients to believe that they fed on air. They live on insects which they capture with the viscid extremity of their tongue, the only part of their body which seems to be endowed with quickness of motion, as in every thing else they are remarkable for their ex· cessive slowness. The great extent of their lungs is probably the ~ause of their faculty of changing colour, which takes place, not as 1s thought in conformity with the hue of the bodies on.which they rest, but according to their wants and passions. Their lungs, in fact, render them more or less transparent, compel the blood in a greater or less degree to returri to the skin, and even colour that fluid more (1) Referred by ~audi~ to Stellio; why, it is difficult to say. (2~ XtLp.rJ.lhiDilV (L1ttle Lwn), the Grecian name of this animal. Aristotle, who uses 1t, has also given an excellent description of it. Hist. An. Lib. II~ cap. xi. SA URI A. 45 'Or less vividly in proportion to the quantity of air they contain. They always remain on trees. Lac. africana, Gm.; CameUon ordinaire, Lacep., I, :xxii; Seb. I, lxxxii, 1, lxxxiii, 4.(1) (The Common Chameleon.) The hood pointed and relieved by a ridge in front; the granules on the skin equal and close; the superior crest iudented as far as half the length of the back, the inferior to the anus. The hood of the female does not project so much and the denticulations of her crests are smaller. From Egypt, Barbary, and even the south of Spain, and India. Cham. tigris, Cuv. Another similar species from the Sechelles with a hood resembling that on the female of the preceding; the granules on the skin fine and equal; it is distinguished by a denticulated and compressed appendage under the extremity of its lower jaw. The body is sprinkled with black points. Cltam. verrucosus, Cuv. A third neighbouring species from the island of Bourbon, marked by granules larger than the -others which are scattered among them, and by a series of warts, parallel to the back at about two thirds of its height. The hood is like that on the female of the common one; the notches on the back are deeper, those on the belly the reverse. Cham. pumilus, Daud. IV, liii; Lacerta pumUa, Gm.; Cham. margaritaceus, Merr; Seb. lxxxii, 4, 5. The hood directed backwards; warts scattered on the flanks, limbs and tail; numerous, compressed, finely notched appendages (lambeaux) under the throat, which vary in each individual. Found at the Cape, Isle of France and the Sechelles.(2) Ch. planiceps, Merr., Seb. I, lxxxiii, 2; Lacerta chamrelion, Gm. The hood flattened, and almost destitute of a ridge; its figure is a horizontal parabola. Found in Sen'egal, Barbary, and even in Georgia. Ch. pardalis, Cuv. The hood flat like that of the Senegal spe• cies; but there is a little prominent edge to its muzzle, in front of the mouth; larger granules scattered among the smaller ones, and the body irregularly marked with round black spots, edged with white. From the isle of France. Ch. Pa,-sonii, Cuv. Phil. Trans. LVIII. Another species, with a flat hood, which is slightly truncated behind; crest of the eye- (1) The Cam. tra,pu, Egyp. Rept. IV, 3; Cit. carinatus, M:err., Cit. aubcroceus, lcl. ~ (2) I believe the Cham. aeichelle:naia of Kubl to be a female of the pumilua. \ |