Chameleon

ka-me'le-un, a lizard-like animal. The common chameleon of Europe is six to eight inches long, with large, humpy shoulders, a thick neck, and a large head. One large fold of skin crosses the nape of the neck, another follows the spine, and a third takes the direction of a dewlap. Five toes on each foot are divided into two groups, two pointing one way and three the other, so that each foot may be used as a hand. This arrangement, together with a prehensile tail, enables the chameleon to climb about the limbs of trees in a cautious, sluggish manner. A way the chameleon has of gulping, and the fact that it will sit for an incredible time without food, led the ancients to suppose it lived on air. This curious animal cannot bend its neck, but it has two prominent eyes that turn in every direction in a comical way, independently of each other. The eye is covered by a single eyelid, having a hole in the center. It is doubtful whether the chameleon fasts as long as is popularly supposed; for, on the approach of an insect, it shoots out a long, sticky tongue with incredible swiftness, and in the twinkling of an eye transfers the luckless insect to its mouth.

The chameleon, like many other animals, has two differently colored layers of pigment, or coloring matter, in its skin. Under the influence of light, fear, or anger, or possibly at will, the color of the chameleon changes so as to resemble a gray limb or green foliage as the case may be, and render the animal less noticeable.

American chameleons, found in the pine woods from Tennessee southward to Cuba, are smaller active animals, grass green in color. They change from gray to yellowish, bronze, and even black. Fastened by a collar and a delicate golden chain, ladies wear them as ornaments. They are true lizards, not chameleons.

See Lizard