Chapter IX: Part 9

The great rapid which forms the discharge of the Saskatchewan into Lake Winnipeg appears quite alive with these fish in the month of June; and some families of the natives resort thither at that time to spear them with a harpoon, or grapple them with a strong hook tied to a pole. Notwithstanding the great muscular power of the Sturgeon, it is timid; and Dr. Richardson saw one so frightened at the paddling of a canoe, that it ran its nose into a muddy bank, and was taken by a _voyageur_, who leaped upon its back.

In Colombia River, a small species of Sturgeon attains eleven feet in length, and a weight of six hundred pounds.[20] It is caught as high up as Fort Colville, notwithstanding the numerous intervening cataracts and rapids which seem to be insuperable barriers to a fish so sluggish in its movements.

The Sturgeon is styled a Royal Fish in England, because, by a statute of Edward II. it is enacted, "the King shall have Sturgeon taken in the sea, or elsewhere, within the realm."

FOOTNOTES:

[18] "The Naturalist in Vancouver Island and British Columbia." By John Keast Lord, F.Z.S., Naturalist to the British North American Boundary Commission.

[19] The Petrel is similarly used in the Faroe Islands. (See _ante_, p. 234.) It may, therefore, be called the Candle Bird.

[20] Dr. Richardson. The _Huro_ is reported by Pallas to attain a weight of nearly three thousand pounds, and a length exceeding thirty feet.

THE TREE-CLIMBING CRAB.

The transition from the ordinary mode of the locomotion of fishes by swimming to that of climbing has been ably illustrated by the Rev. Dr. Buckland, who showed, in a communication to the Ashmolean Society, in 1843, that the fins in certain genera perform the functions of feet and wings. Thus, "fishing-frogs" have the fins converted into feet, or paddles, by means of which they have the power of crawling or hopping on sand and mud; and another species can live three days out of the water, and walk upon dry land. The climbing perch of the Indian rivers is known to live a long time in the air, and to climb up the stems of palm-trees in pursuit of flies, by means of spinous projections on its gill-covers. Fishes of the _silurus_ family have a bony enlargement of the first ray of the pectoral fin, which is also armed with spines; and this is not only an offensive and defensive weapon, but enables the fish to walk along the bottom of the fresh waters which it inhabits. The flying-fishes are notorious examples of the conversion of fins into an organ of movement in the air. M. Deslongchamps has published, in the "Transactions of the Linnæan Society of Normandy," 1842, a curious account of the movements of the gurnard at the bottom of the sea. In 1839, he observed these movements in one of the artificial fishing-ponds, or fishing-traps, surrounded by nets, on the shore of Normandy. He saw a score of gurnards closing their fins against their sides, like the wing of a fly in repose, and without any movement of their tails, walking along the bottom by means of six free rays, three on each pectoral fin, which they placed successively on the ground. They moved rapidly forwards, backwards, to the right and left, groping in all directions with these rays, as if in search of small crabs. Their great heads and bodies seemed to throw hardly any weight on the slender rays, or feet, being suspended in water, and having their weight further diminished by their swimming-bladder. During these movements the gurnards resembled insects moving along the sand. When M. Deslongchamps moved in the water, the fish swam away rapidly to the extremity of the pond; when he stood still, they resumed their ambulatory movement, and came between his legs. On dissection, we find these three anterior rays of the pectoral fins to be supported each with strong muscular apparatus to direct their movements, apart from the muscles that are connected with the smaller rays of the pectoral fin.

Dr. Buckland states that Miss Potts, of Chester, had sent to him a flagstone from a coalshaft at Mostyn, bearing impressions which he supposed to be the trackway of some fish crawling along the bottom by means of the anterior rays of its pectoral fins. There were no indications of feet, but only scratches, symmetrically disposed on each side of a space that may have been covered by the body of the fish whilst making progress, by pressing its fin-bones on the bottom. As yet, no footsteps of reptiles, or of any animals more highly organized than fishes, have been found in strata older than those which belong to the new red sandstone. The abundant remains of fossil fishes, armed with strong bony spines, and of other fishes allied to the gurnard, in strata of the carboniferous and old red sandstone series, would lead us to expect the frequent occurrence of impressions made by their locomotive organs on the bottoms of the ancient waters in which they lived. Dr. Buckland proposed to designate these petrified traces or trackways of ancient fishes by the term of fish-tracks.

Crabs and Lobsters are strange creatures: strange in their configurations; strange in the transmutations which they exhibit from the egg to maturity; strange in the process they undergo of casting off, not only their shell, but the covering of their eyes, of their long horns, and even the lining of their tooth-furnished stomach; strange, also, are they in their manners and habits. Many a reader, in wandering along the sea-shore, may have disturbed little colonies of Crabs quietly nestling in fancied security amidst banks of slimy sea-weed; and in the nooks and recesses of the coast, the shallows, and strips of land left dry at ebb-tide, may be seen numbers of little, or perchance large, Crabs, some concealed in snug lurking-places, others tripping, with a quick _side-long_ movement, over the beach, alarmed by the advance of an unwelcome intruder. Some are exclusively tenants of the water, have feet formed like paddles for swimming, and never venture on land; others seem to love the air and sunshine, and enjoy an excursion, not without hopes of finding an acceptable repast, over the oozy sands; some, equally fond of the shore and shallow water, appropriate to themselves the shells of periwinkles, whelks, &c., and there live in a sort of castle, which they drag about with them on their excursions, changing it for a larger as they increase in measure of growth. They vary in size from microscopic animalcules to the gigantic King Crab:[21] to the former, the luminosity of the ocean, or of the foam before the prows of vessels, is, to a great extent, attributable, each minute creature glowing with phosphoric light.

The Bernhard Crab has been proved to have the power of dissolving shells, it not being unusual to find the long fusiform shells which are inhabited by these animals with the inner lip, and the greater part of the pillar on the inside of the mouth, destroyed, so as to render the aperture much larger than usual. Dr. Gray is quite convinced that these Crabs have the above power, some to a much greater degree than others.

Certain Crabs, especially in the West Indies, are almost exclusively terrestrial, visiting the sea only at given periods, for the deposition of their eggs. These Crabs carry in their gill-chambers sufficient water for the purpose of respiration; they live in burrows, and traverse considerable tracts of land in the performance of their migratory journeys. Of these, some, as the Violet Crab, are exquisite delicacies.

Of a great Crab migration we find these details in the "Jamaica Royal Gazette:"--In 1811 there was a very extraordinary production of Black Crabs in the eastern part of Jamaica. In June or July the whole district of Manchidneed was covered with countless numbers, swarming from the sea to the mountains. Of this the writer was an eye-witness. On ascending Over Hill from the vale of Plantain Garden River, the road appeared of a reddish colour, as if strewed with brick-dust. It was owing to myriads of young Black Crabs, about the size of the nail of a man's finger, moving at a pretty quick pace, direct for the mountains. "I rode along the coast," says the writer, "a distance of about fifteen miles, and found it nearly the same the whole way. Returning the following day, I found the road still covered with them, the same as the day before. How have they been produced, and where do they come from? were questions everybody asked, and nobody could answer. It is well known that Crabs deposit their eggs once a year, in May; but, except on this occasion, though living on the coast, I had never seen above a dozen young Crabs together; and here were myriads. No unusual number of old Crabs had been observed in that season; and it is worthy of note, that they were moving from a rock-bound coast of inaccessible cliffs, the abode of sea-birds, and exposed to the constant influence of the trade winds. No person, as far as I know, ever saw the like, except on that occasion; and I have understood that since 1811 Black Crabs have been more abundant further in to the interior of the island than they were ever known before."

Cuvier describes the Burrowing Crab as displaying wonderful instinct:--"The animal closes the entrance of its burrow, which is situated near the margin of the sea, or in marshy grounds, with its largest claw. These burrows are cylindrical, oblique, very deep, and very close to each other; but generally each burrow is the exclusive habitation of a single individual. The habit which these crabs have of holding their large claw elevated in advance of the body, as if making a sign of beckoning to some one, has obtained for them the name of Calling Crabs. There is a species observed by Mr. Bosc in South Carolina, which passes the three months of the winter in its retreat without once quitting it, and which never goes to the sea except at the epoch of egg-laying." The same observations apply to the Chevalier Crabs (so called from the celerity with which they traverse the ground). These are found in Africa, and along the borders of the Mediterranean.

Some Crabs, truly aquatic, as the Vaulted Crab of the Moluccas, have the power of drawing back their limbs, and concealing them in a furrow, which they closely fit; and thus, in imitation of a tortoise, which retracts its feet and head within its shell, they secure themselves, when alarmed. Other aquatic species have their limbs adapted for clinging to weeds and other marine objects. Of these some have the two or four hind pairs of limbs so placed as to appear to spring from the back; they terminate in a sharp hook, by means of which the Crab attaches itself to the valves of shells, fragments of coral, &c., which it draws over its body, and thus lurks in concealment. Allied, in some respects, to the Hermit or Soldier Crabs, which tenant empty shells, is one which, from its manners and habits, is one of the most extraordinary of its race. The Hermit Crabs are voracious, and feed on animal substances. The Hermit, or Bernhard Crab, is so called from its habit of taking up its solitary residence in deserted shells, thus seeking a protection for its tail, which is long and naked. It is found in shells of different dimensions, and from time to time leaves its abode, as it feels a necessity, for a more commodious dwelling. It is said to present, on such occasions, an amusing instinct as it inserts the tail successively into several empty shells until one is found to fit. We learn from Professor Bell, however, that it does not always wait until the home is vacant, but occasionally rejects the rightful occupant with some violence. On the contrary, the Crab, or rather Lobster-Crab (for it takes an intermediate place between them), is more delicate in its appetite, and feeds upon fruits, to obtain which it is said to climb up certain trees, at the feet of which it makes a burrow. This species is the Purse Crab, or Robber Crab, of Amboyna and other islands in the South Pacific Ocean.

"According to popular belief among the Indians," says Cuvier, "the Robber Crab feeds on the nuts of the cocoa-tree, and it makes its excursions during the night; its places of retreat are fissures in the rocks, or holes in the ground." The accounts of the early writers and travellers, as well as of the natives, were disbelieved; but their truth has since been abundantly confirmed. MM. Quoy and Guimard assure us that several Robber Crabs were fed by them for many months on cocoa-nuts alone; and a specimen of this Crab was submitted to the Zoological Society, with additional information from Mr. Cuming, in whose fine collection from the islands of the South Pacific several specimens were preserved. Mr. Cuming states these Crabs to be found in great numbers in Lord Hood's Island, in the Pacific. He there frequently met with them on the road. On being disturbed, the Crabs instantly assumed a defensive attitude, making a loud snapping with their powerful claws, or pincers, which continued as they retreated backwards. They climb a species of palm to gather a small kind of cocoa-nut that grows thereon. They live at the roots of trees, and not in the holes of rocks; and they form a favourite food among the natives. Such is the substance of Mr. Cuming's account. Mr. Darwin, in his "Researches in Geology and Natural History," saw several of these Crabs in the Keeling Islands, or Cocos Islands, in the Indian Ocean, about 600 miles distant from the coast of Sumatra. In these islands, of coral formation, the cocoa-nut tree is so abundant as to appear, at first glance, to compose the whole wood of the islands.

Here the great Purse Crab is abundant. Mr. Darwin describes it as a Crab which lives on the cocoa-nut, is common on all parts of the dry land, and grows to a monstrous size. This Crab has its front pair of legs terminated by very strong and heavy pincers, and the last pair by others which are narrow and weak. It would at first be thought quite impossible for a Crab to open a strong cocoa-nut, covered with the husk; but Mr. Liesk assures me that he has repeatedly seen the operation effected. The Crab begins by tearing away the husk, fibre by fibre, and always from that end under which the three eye-holes are situated. When this is completed the Crab commences hammering with its heavy claws on one of these eye-holes till an opening is made. Then, turning its body, by the aid of its posterior and narrow pair of pincers, it extracts the white albuminous substance. I think this as curious a case as I ever heard of, and likewise of adaptation in structure between two objects apparently so remote from each other in the scheme of nature as a Crab and a cocoa-nut tree. The Crab is diurnal in its habits; but it is said to pay every night a visit to the sea for the purpose of moistening its gills. These gills are very peculiar, and scarcely fill up more than a tenth of the chamber in which they are placed: it doubtless acts as a reservoir for water, to serve the Crab in its passage over the dry and heated land. The young are hatched and live for some time on the coast; at this period of existence we cannot suppose that cocoa-nuts form any part of their diet; most probably soft saccharine grasses, fruits, and certain animal matters, serve as their food until they attain a certain size and strength.

The adult Crabs, Mr. Darwin tells us, inhabit deep burrows, which they excavate beneath the roots of trees; and here they accumulate great quantities of the picked fibres of the cocoa-nut husk, on which they rest as on a bed. The Malays sometimes take advantage of the labours of the Crab by collecting the coarse fibrous substance, and using it as junk. These Crabs are very good to eat; moreover, under the tail of the larger ones there is a great mass of fat, which, when melted, yields as much as a quart bottleful of limpid oil.

The Crab's means of obtaining the cocoa-nuts have, however, been much disputed. It is stated by some authors to crawl up the trees for the purpose of stealing the nuts. This is doubted; though in the kind of palm to which Mr. Cuming refers as being ascended by this Crab, the task would be much easier. Now, Mr. Darwin states, that in the Keeling Islands the Crab lives only on the nuts which fall to the ground. It may thus appear that Mr. Cuming's and Mr. Darwin's respective accounts of the _non-climbing_ of this Crab on the one side, and its _actually climbing trees_ on the other, are contradictory. The height of the stem of the cocoa-nut tree, its circumference, and comparative external smoothness, would prove insurmountable, or at least very serious obstacles, to the most greedy Crab, however large and strong it might be. But these difficulties are by no means so formidable in the tree specified by Mr. Cuming: this is arborescent, or bushy, with long, thin, rigid, sword-shaped leaves, resembling those of the pineapple, usually arranged spirally, so that they are commonly called Screw Pines. They are of the genus _Pandanus_, a word derived from the Malay _Pandang_. The ascent of these arborescent plants, having the stem furnished with a rigging of cord-like roots, and bearing a multitude of firm, long, and spirally-arranged leaves, would be by no means a work of difficulty, as would necessarily be that of the tall feathery-topped cocoa-tree, destitute of all available points of aid or support. Hence the contradiction in the two accounts referred to is seeming, and not real, and the two statements are reconciled.

To sum up, Mr. Cuming fully testifies to the Crab climbing the Screw Pines; and he has told Professor Owen that he has actually seen the Crab climbing the cocoa-nut tree. The Crab has been kept on cocoa-nuts for months; and is universally reported by the natives to climb the trees at night.

We may here, too, observe, that fine specimens of the Climbing Crab are to be seen in the British Museum. Here, too, arranged in cases, are Spider Crabs; Crabs with oysters growing on their backs, thus showing that Crabs do not shed their shells every year, or that the oyster increases very rapidly in bulk; Oval-bodied Crabs; and Fin-footed or Swimming Crabs. Here are also Telescope, or Long-eyed Crabs, and Land Crabs, found in India 4,000 feet above the sea-level; another of similar habits in the plains of the Deccan, that may be seen swarming in the fields, some cutting and nipping the green rice-stalks, and others waddling off backwards with sheaves bigger than themselves. To these may be added Square-bodied Crabs, Crested Crabs; Porcelain Crabs, with delicate, china-like shells; and Death's-head Crabs, which usually form cases for themselves from pieces of sponge and shells.

Certain species of Crabs are remarkably tenacious of life, and have been known to live for weeks buried, and without food. It is in the Crab tribe that the fact of the metamorphosis of _crustacea_ has been most distinctly perceived; a small, peculiar crustacean animal, that had long passed for a distinct species, under the name of _Zoea_, having at length been identified with the young of the common Crab before it had attained its full development.

That among the Crab tribes a tree-climbing species is to be found is certainly curious, but it is not without a parallel among fishes. Many of the latter leave the water, some even for a long time, and perform overland journeys, aided in their progress by the structure of their fins. In these fishes the gills and gill-chambers are constructed for the retention of water for a considerable time, so as to suffice for the necessary degree of respiration. In our country, we may mention the eel, which often voluntarily quits the river or lake, and wanders during the night over the adjacent meadows, probably in quest of dew-worms. But the marshes of India and China present us with fishes much more decidedly terrestrial, and some of which were known to the ancients. Among these are several fishes of a snake-like form: they have an elongated, cylindrical body, and creep on land to great distances from their native waters. The boatmen of India often keep these fishes for a long time out of water, for the sake of diverting themselves and others by their terrestrial movements, and children may often be seen enjoying this sport.

Of these land-haunting fishes, the most remarkable is the tree-climber, so called in Tranquebar. This fish inhabits India, the Indian islands, and various parts of China, as Chusan, &c., living in marshes, and feeding on aquatic insects, worms, &c. According to Daldorf, a Danish gentleman, who, in 1797, communicated an account of the habits of this fish to the Linnæan Society, it _mounts up_ the bushes or low palms to some elevation. This gentleman states that he had himself observed it in the act of ascending palm-trees near the marshes, and had taken it at a height of no less than five feet, measured from the level of the adjacent water. It effects its ascent by means of its pectoral and under fins, aided by the action of the tail and the spines which border the gill covers. It is by the same agency that it traverses the land. The statement of M. Daldorf is corroborated by M. John, also a Danish observer, to whom we are indebted for the knowledge of its name in Tranquebar, which alludes to its arboreal proceedings.

It is true that many other naturalists who have observed the habits of this fish in its native regions, while they concur in describing its terrestrial journeys, and its living for a long time out of water, either omit to mention, or mention with doubt, its reputed attempts at _tree-climbing_.

The habits and instincts of certain Crawfishes are very extraordinary. Thus, the _Astaci_ are migratory, and in their travels are capable of doing much damage to dams and embankments. On the Little Genesee River they have, within a few years, compelled the owner of a dam to rebuild it. The former dam was built after the manner of dykes, _i.e._, with upright posts, supporting sleepers, laid inclining up the stream. On these were laid planks, and the planks were covered with dirt. The _Astacus_ proceeding up the stream would burrow under the planks where they rested on the bottom of the stream, removing bushels of dirt and gravel in the course of a night. They travel over the dam in their migrations, _often climbing posts_ two or three feet high to gain the pond above.[22]

We have to add a new and eccentric variety of nature--the Pill-making Crab, which abounds at Labuan, Singapore, and Lahore, and is described in Mr. Collingwood's "Rambles of a Naturalist." When the tide is down, this little creature, if stealthily watched, may be seen creeping up a hole in the sandy shore, taking up rapidly particles of the loose powdery sand in its claws, and depositing them in a groove beneath the thorax. A little ball of sand, about the size of a filbert, is forthwith projected, though whether it passes actually through the mouth is not made clear. Pill after pill is seized with one claw, and laid aside, until the beach is covered with these queer little pellets. This is evidently the creature's mode of extracting particles of food from the sand.

Mr. Collingwood also describes, as met with on the shores and waters of the China seas, Glass Crabs, whose flat, transparent, leaf-like bodies seem made of fine plates of mica. The dredge brings up many a rich haul of sponges, corals, and gorgoniæ, of the most splendid colours, certain of the sponges harbouring within their cells minute crabs of a new genus. Between Aden and Galle the sea is of a pinkish colour, owing to the immense accumulation of minute kinds of medusæ, in solid masses of red jelly. Over Fiery Cross Reef, the mirror-like sea reveals, at the depth of sixty or seventy feet, this wealth of natural treasures. "Glorious masses of living coral strew the bottom: immense globular madrepores--vast overhanging mushroom-shaped expansions, complicated ramifications of interweaving branches, mingled with smaller and more delicate species--round, finger-shaped, horn-like and umbrella-form--lie in wondrous confusion. Here and there is a large clam-shell, wedged in between masses of coral, the gaping, zigzag mouth covered with the projecting mantle of the deepest Prussian blue; beds of dark purple, long-spined Echini, and the thick black bodies of sea-cucumbers vary the aspect of the sea bottom."[23]

FOOTNOTES:

[21] This Crab has an elongated spine-like tail, the use of which was long misunderstood. Dr. J. Gray was shown at the Liverpool Museum some living King Crabs, and the use they made of the tail-like appendages. When turned over on their backs, he saw them bend down the tail until they could reach some point of resistance, and then employ it to elevate the body, and regain their normal position. Dr. Gray states that they never have been seen to use this tail for the purpose which has been often assigned to it--that is, for leaping from place to place by bending it under the body, like the toy called a "spring-jack," or "leaping frog."

[22] American Journal of Science and Art.

[23] W. C. Linnæus Martin, F.L.S.

MUSICAL LIZARDS.

A small Lizard, lately brought home from the Isle of Formosa by Mr. Swinhoe, is decided to be a new species by Dr. Günther, of the British Museum. Mr. Swinhoe found the eggs of this Gecko, or Lizard, in holes of walls or among mortar rubbish. They are round, and usually lie several together, resembling eggs of ordinary Lizards. The young, when first hatched, keep much under stones in dark cellars, where they remain until they attain about two-thirds of the adult size, when they begin to appear in public to catch insects, but evincing great shyness of their seniors. Mr. Swinhoe states that on the plaster-washed sides of his bedroom, close to the angle of the roof, every evening when the lamp was placed on the table below, four little Musical Lizards used to make their appearance and watch patiently for insects attracted by the light. A sphinx or a beetle buzzing into the room would put them into great excitement, and they would run with celerity from one part of the wall to the other after the deluded insect as it fluttered in vain, buffeting its head, up and down the wall. Two or three would run after the same insect, but as soon as one had succeeded in securing it, the rest would prudently draw aloof. In running over the perpendicular face of the wall they keep so close, and their movements are made so quickly, with one leg in advance of the other, that they have the appearance at a distance of gliding rather than running. The tail is somewhat writhed as the body is jerked along, and much so when the animal is alarmed and doing its utmost to escape; but its progress even then is in short runs, stopping at intervals and raising its head to look about. If a fly perch on the wall it cautiously approaches to within a short distance, then suddenly darts forwards, and with its quickly-protruded, glutinous tongue, fixes it. Apart from watching its curious manoeuvres after its insect-food, the attention of the most listless would be attracted by the singular series of loud notes these creatures utter at all hours of the day and night, more especially during cloudy and rainy weather. These notes resemble the syllables "chuck-chuck," several times repeated; and, from their more frequent occurrence during July and August, they are thought to be the call notes of the male to the female.

During the greater part of the day, the little creature lies quiescent in some cranny among the beams of the roof or in the wall of the house, where, however, it is ever watchful for the incautious fly that approaches its den, upon whom it darts forth with but little notice. But it is by no means confined to the habitations of men. Every old wall, and almost every tree, possesses a tenant or two of this species. It is excessively lively, and even when found quietly ensconced in a hole, generally manages to escape--its glittering little eyes (black, with yellow ochre iris) appearing to know no sleep; and an attempt to capture the runaway seldom results in more than the seizure of an animated tail, wrenched off with a jerk by the little fellow as it slips away, without loss of blood. The younger individuals are much darker than the larger and older animals, which are sometimes almost albinoes. In ordinary fly-catching habits, as they stick to the sides of a lamp, there is much similarity between this gecko and the little papehoo, or wall-lizard of China; but this is decidedly a larger and much more active animal, and often engages in a struggle with insects of very large size. The Chinese colonists of Formosa greatly respect the geckos, in consequence of a legend which attributes to them the honour of having once poisoned the supplies of an invading rebellious army, which was thereby totally cut to pieces. The geckos were raised to the rank of generals by the grateful Emperor of China; which honour, the legend states, they greatly appreciated, and henceforth devoted their energies to the extermination of mosquitoes and other injurious insects.

CHAMELEONS, AND THEIR CHANGES.

"Nil fuit unquam
Sic impar sibi."--_Horat._

"Sure such a various creature ne'er was seen."

_Francis, in imit._

The Chameleon tribe is a well-defined family of lizard-like reptiles, whose characters may be summed up as existing in the form of their feet; the toes, which are joined together or bound up together in two packets or bundles, opposed to each other; in their shagreen-like skin; in their prehensile tail; and in their extensile and retractile vermiform tongue.

That the Chameleon was known to the ancients there is no doubt. Its name we derive directly from the _Chamelæo_ of the Latins. Aristotle's history of the animal proves the acute observation of that great zoologist--the absence of a sternum, the disposition of the ribs, the mechanism of the tail, the motion of the eyes, the toes bound up in opposable bundles, &c.--though he is not entirely correct on some points. Pliny mentions it, but his account is for the most part a compilation from Aristotle.

Calmet's description of the Chameleon is curiously minute:--"It has four feet, and on each foot three claws. Its tail is long: with this, as well as with his feet, it fastens itself to the branches of trees. Its tail is flat, its nose long, ending in an obtuse point; its back is sharp, its skin plaited, and jagged like a saw, from the neck to the last joint of the tail, and upon its head it has something like a comb; like a fish, it has no neck. Some have asserted that it lives only upon air, but it has been observed to feed on flies, catched with its tongue, which is about ten inches long and three thick, made of white flesh, round, but flat at the end, or hollow and open, resembling an elephant's trunk. It also shrinks, and grows longer. This animal is said to assume the colour of those things to which it is applied; but our modern observers assure us that its natural colour, when at rest, and in the shade, is a bluish-grey; though some are yellow, others green, but both of a smaller kind. When it is exposed to the sun, the grey changes into a darker grey, inclining to a dun colour, and its parts which have least of the light upon them are changed into spots of different colours. Sometimes, when it is handled, it seems speckled with dark spots, inclining to green. If it be put upon a black hat, it appears to be of a violet colour; and sometimes, if it be wrapped up in linen, it is white; but it changes colour only in some parts of the body."

Its changes of colour have been commemorated by the poets. Shakspeare has--

"I can add colours ev'n to the Chameleon:
Change shapes with Proteus, for advantage."

Dryden has--

"The thin Chameleon, fed with air, receives
The colour of the thing to which it cleaves."

Prior has--

"As the Chameleon, which is known
To have no colours of his own,
But borrows from his neighbour's hue
His white or black, his green or blue."

Gay, in his charming fable of the Spaniel and the Chameleon, "scarce distinguished from the green," makes the latter thus reply to the taunts of the pampered spaniel:--

"'Sir,' says the sycophant, 'like you,
Of old, politer life I knew:
Like you, a courtier born and bred,
Kings lean'd their ear to what I said:
My whisper always met success;
The ladies prais'd me for address;
I knew to hit each courtier's passion,
And flatter'd every vice in fashion:
But Jove, who hates the liar's ways,
At once cut short my prosperous days,
And, sentenced to retain my nature,
Transform'd me to this crawling creature.
Doom'd to a life obscure and mean,
I wander'd in the silvan scene:
For Jove the heart alone regards;
He punishes what man rewards.
How different is thy case and mine!
With men at least you sup and dine;
While I, condemned to thinnest fare,
Like those I flatter'd, fed on air.'"

Upon this fable a commentator acutely notes:--"The raillery at court sycophants naturally pervades our poet's writings, who had suffered so much from them. Here, however, he intimates something more, namely, the apposite dispensations to man's acts, even in this world. The crafty is taken in by his own guile, the courtier falls by his own arts, and the ladder of ambition only prepares for the aspirant a further fall."[24]

With respect to the air-food of the Chameleon. Cuvier observes that its lung is so large that, when it is filled with air, it imparts a transparency to the body, which made the ancients say that it lived upon air; and he inclines to think that to its size the Chameleon owes the property of changing its colour; but, with regard to this last speculation, he was wrong, as we shall presently see.

It was long thought that the Chameleon, like most of the lizard tribe, was produced from an egg. The little animal is, however, most clearly viviparous, and not oviparous, although the tales told of the lizard tribe in the story books are most perplexing. To name a few of them:--1. The crocodile, which is the largest of the lizard tribe, and has even attained the size of 18-1/2 ft. in length, is confidently stated as laying eggs, which she covers with sand and leaves, to be hatched by the sun; and these have been met with in the rivers Nile, Niger, and Ganges. 2. _Lacerta Gangetica_, unknown to Linnæus, but brought to this country from Bengal in 1747 by the late Dr. Mead, is said to be furnished with a false belly, like the opossum, where the young can be received for protection in time of danger. In this case the egg must have been hatched in the belly of the animal, like the viper. 3. The alligator, or American crocodile, lays a vast quantity of eggs in the sand, near the banks of lakes and rivers, and leaves them to be hatched by the sun; and the young are seldom seen. 4. The cayman, or Antilles crocodile, has furnished its eggs to many collections. 5. A salamander was opened by M. Maupertuis, and its belly was found full of eggs; but in "Les Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences" it is stated that, after a similar operation of the kind, "fifty young ones, resembling the parent animal, were found in its womb all alive, and actively running about the room."

The tongue is the chief organ for taking the insects on which the Chameleon lives. By a curious mechanism, of which the tongue-bone is a principal agent, the Chameleon can protrude this cylindrical tongue, which has its tip covered with a glutinous secretion from the sheath at the lower part of the mouth, to the length of six inches. When the Chameleon is about to seize an insect, it rolls round its extraordinary eyeballs so as to bring them to bear on the doomed object; as soon as it arrives within the range of the tongue, that organ is projected with unerring precision, and returns into the mouth with the prey adhering to the viscous tip. The wonderful activity with which this feat is performed, forms a strong contrast to the almost ridiculously slow motions of the animal. Their operation of taking meal-worms, of which they are fond, though comparatively rapid, is not remarkable for its quickness, but done with an act of deliberation, and so that the projection and retraction of the tongue can be very distinctly followed with the eye.

The eyes of the Chameleon are remarkable objects; large, projecting, and almost entirely covered with the shagreen-like skin, with the exception of a small aperture opposite the pupil; their motions are completely independent of each other. It adds to the strange and grotesque appearance of this creature to see it roll one of its eye-globes backwards, while the other is directed forwards, as if making two distinct surveys at one time. Its sight must be acute, from the unerring certainty with which it marks and strikes its prey.

The Chameleons spend their lives in trees, for clinging to the branches of which their organization is admirably adapted. There they lie in wait for the insects which may come within their reach; and it has been thought that, in such situations, their faculty of changing colour becomes highly important in aiding them to conceal themselves. The powers of abstinence possessed by this singular race are very great; and hence, most probably, arose the old fable of their _living on air_, which was for a long time considered to be "the Chameleon's dish." One has been known to fast upwards of six weeks without taking any sustenance, though meat-food and insects were procured for it. Notwithstanding this fast, it did not appear to fall away much. It would fix itself by the feet and tail to the bars of the fender, and there remain motionless, enjoying the warmth of the fire for hours together. Hasselquist describes one, that he kept for nearly a month, as climbing up and down the bars of its cage in a very lively manner.

The power of the Chameleon's changing colour long exercised the ingenuity of the old naturalists. Hasselquist thought that the changes of colour depended on a kind of disease, more especially a sort of jaundice, to which the animal was subject, particularly when it was put in a rage. M. D'Obsonville thought that he had discovered the secret in the blood, and that the change of colour depended upon a mixture of blue and yellow, whence the different shades of green were derived; and these colours he obtains from the blood and the blood-vessels. Thus he says that the blood is of a violet hue, and will retain its colour on linen or paper for some minutes if previously steeped in a solution of alum, and that the coats of the vessels are yellow; consequently, he argues, that the mixture of the two will produce green. He further traces the change of colour to the passions of the animal. Thus, when a healthy Chameleon is provoked, the circulation is accelerated, the vessels that are spread over the skin are distended, and a superficial blue-green colour is produced. When, on the contrary, the animal is imprisoned, impoverished, and deprived of free air, the circulation becomes languid, the vessels are not filled, the colour of their coats prevails, and the Chameleon changes to a yellow-green, which lasts during its confinement.

Barrow, in his "Travels in Africa," declares that previously to the Chameleon's assuming a change of colour, it makes a long inspiration, the body swelling out to twice its usual size; and as the inflation subsides, the change of colour gradually takes place, the only permanent marks being two small dark lines passing along the sides. Mr. Wood conceives from this account that the animal is principally indebted for these varied tints to the influence of oxygen. Mr. Spittal also regards these changes as connected with the state of the lungs; and Mr. Houston considers this phenomenon as dependent on the turgescency of the skin. Dr. Weissenborn thinks it not unlikely that the nervous currents may directly co-operate in effecting the changes of colour in the Chameleon.

Mr. H. N. Turner, writing from personal observation of the phenomenon in a live Chameleon in his possession, says:--"It has been generally imagined that the purpose of the singular faculty accorded to the Chameleon is to enable it to accommodate its appearance to that of surrounding objects." Mr. Turner's observations do not, however, favour the idea, but seem rather to negative it. The box in which Mr. Turner's Chameleon was kept was of deal, with glass at the top, and a piece of flannel laid at the bottom, a small branching stick being placed there by way of a perch. He introduced, at various times, pieces of coloured paper, covering the bottom of the box, of blue, yellow, and scarlet, but without the slightest effect upon the appearance of the animal. Considering that these primary colours were not such as it would be likely to be placed in contact with in a state of nature, he next tried a piece of green calico, but equally without result. The animal went through all its usual changes without their being in any way modified by the colour placed underneath it. The general tint approximated, as may be readily observed, to those of the branches of trees, just as those of most animals do to the places in which they dwell; but Mr. Turner did not observe the faculty of changing called into play with any apparent object. It is only when the light is removed that the animal assumes a colour which absorbs but little of it.

Not to go further into the numerous treatises which have been published on this intricate subject without arriving at a just conclusion, we refer to the able and interesting paper of Mr. Milne Edwards, for whose acuteness the solution of this puzzling phenomenon was reserved. The steps by which he first overthrew the received theories on the subject, and then arrived at the cause of the change of colour, is shown in the following results, derived from observing two Chameleons living, and researches after the animals had died, on the structure of their skin, and the parts immediately beneath it.

1. That the change in the colour of the Chameleon does not depend essentially either on the more or less considerable swelling of their bodies, or the changes which might hence result to the condition of their blood or circulation; nor does it depend on the greater or less distance which may exist between the several cutaneous tubercles; although it is not to be denied that these circumstances probably exercise some influence upon the phenomenon.

2. That there exist in the skin of these animals two layers of membranous pigment, placed the one above the other, but disposed in such a way as to appear simultaneously under the cuticle, and sometimes in such a manner that the one may hide the other.

3. That everything remarkable in the changes of colour in the Chameleon may be explained by the appearance of the pigment of the deeper layer to an extent more or less considerable, in the midst of the pigment of the superficial layer, or from its disappearance beneath this layer.

4. That these displacements of the deeper pigment do in reality occur; and it is a probable consequence that the Chameleon's colour changes during life, and may continue to change even after death.

5. That there exists a close analogy between the mechanism by the help of which the change of colour appears to take place in these reptiles, and that which determines the successive appearance and disappearance of coloured spots in the mantles of several of the cephalopods.

Chameleons are found in warm climates of the old world, South of Spain, Africa, East Indies. Isles of Sechelles, Bourbon, France, Moluccas. Madagascar (where it is said there are seven of the species which belong to Africa), Fernando Po, and New South Wales. In the year 1860, a new and curiously formed species of Chameleon was brought from the interior of the Old Calabar district of West Africa, by one of the natives. It is characterised by three horny processes on the head. Many Lizards have singular spiny projections on all parts of the body; but this very well marked species had not been hitherto recorded.

Mrs. Belzoni, the wife of the celebrated traveller in the East, made some careful observations upon the habits of Chameleons, which are worth quoting. The Arabs in Lower Egypt catch Chameleons by jumping upon them, flinging stones at them, or striking them with sticks, which hurts them very much. The Nubians lay them down gently on the ground, and when they come down from the date-trees, they catch hold of the tail of the animal, and fix a string to it; therefore the body does not get injured. Mrs. Belzoni had some Chameleons for several months in her house, and her observations are as follows:--

"In the first place they are very inveterate towards each other, and must not be shut up together, else they will bite each other's tails and legs off.

"There are three species of Chameleons, whose colours are peculiar to themselves: for instance, the commonest sort are those which are generally green, that is to say, the body all green, and, when content, beautifully marked on each side regularly on the green with black and yellow, not in a confused manner, but as if drawn. This kind is in great plenty; they never have any other colour except a light green when they sleep, and when ill, a very pale yellow. Out of near forty I had the first year when in Nubia, I had but one, and that a very small one of the second sort, which had red marks. One Chameleon lived with me eight months, and most of that time I had it fixed to the button of my coat: it used to rest on my shoulder or on my head. I have observed, when I have kept it shut up in a room for some time, that on bringing it out in the air it would begin drawing the air in, and on putting it on some marjorum it has had a wonderful effect on it immediately: its colour became most brilliant. I believe it will puzzle a good many to say what cause it proceeds from. If they did not change when shut up in a house, but only on taking them in a garden, it might be supposed the change of the colours was in consequence of the smell of the plants; but when in a house, if it is watched, it will change every ten minutes: some moments a plain green, at others all its beautiful colours will come out, and when in a passion it becomes of a deep black, and will swell itself up like a balloon, and, from being one of the most beautiful animals, it becomes one of the most ugly. It is true that Chameleons are extremely fond of the fresh air, and on taking them to a window when there is nothing to be seen, it is easy to observe the pleasure they certainly take in it: they begin to gulp down the air, and their colour becomes brighter. I think it proceeds, in a great degree, from the temper they are in: a little thing will put them in a bad humour: if in crossing a table, for instance, you stop them, and attempt to turn them another road, they will not stir, and are extremely obstinate: on opening the mouth at them, it will set them in a passion: they begin to arm themselves by swelling and turning black, and will sometimes hiss a little, but not much.

"The third I brought from Jerusalem was the most singular of all the Chameleons I ever had: its temper, if it can be so called, was extremely sagacious and cunning. This one was not of the order of the green kind, but a disagreeable drab, and it never once varied in its colour in two months. On my arrival in Cairo. I used to let it crawl about the room on the furniture. Sometimes it would get down, if it could, and hide itself away from me, but in a place where it could see me; and sometimes, on my leaving the room and on entering it, would draw itself so thin as to make itself nearly on a level with whatever it might be on, so that I might not see it. It had often deceived me so. One day having missed it for some time, I concluded it was hid about the room; after looking for it in vain, I thought it had got out of the room and made its escape: in the course of the evening, after the candle was lighted, I went to a basket that had got a handle across it: I saw my Chameleon, but its colour entirely changed, and different to any I ever had seen before: the whole body, head and tail, a brown with black spots, and beautiful deep orange-coloured spots round the black. I certainly was much gratified. On being disturbed, its colours vanished, unlike the others; but after this I used to observe it the first thing in the morning, when it would have the same colours. Some time after, it made its escape out of my room, and I suppose got into the garden close by. I was much vexed, and would have given twenty dollars to have recovered it again, though it only cost me threepence, knowing I could not get another like it; for, afterwards being in Rosetta, I had between fifty and sixty; but all those were green, yellow, and black; and the Arabs, in catching them, had bruised them so much, that after a month or six weeks they died. It is an animal extremely hard to die. I had prepared two cages with separate divisions, with the intention of bringing them to England; but though I desired the Arabs that used to get them for me to catch them by the tail, they used to hurt them much with their hands; and if once the body is squeezed, it will never live longer than two months. When they used to sleep at night, it was easy to see where they had been bruised; for being of a very light colour when sleeping, the part that had been bruised, either on the body or the head, which was bone, was extremely black, though when green it would not show itself so clear. Their chief food was flies: the fly does not die immediately on being swallowed, for upon taking the Chameleon up in my hands, it was easy to feel the fly buzzing, chiefly on account of the air they draw in their inside: they swell much, and particularly when they want to fling themselves off a great height, by filling themselves up like a balloon: on falling, they get no hurt, except on the mouth, which they bruise a little, as that comes first to the ground. Sometimes they will not drink for three or four days, and when they begin they are about half an hour drinking. I have held a glass in one hand while the Chameleon rested its two fore-paws on the edge of it, the two hind ones resting on my other hand. It stood upright while drinking, holding its head up like a fowl. By flinging its tongue out of its mouth the length of its body, and instantaneously catching the fly, it would go back like a spring. They will drink mutton broth: how I came to know this was, one day having a plate of broth and rice on the table where it was: it went to the plate and got half into it, and began drinking, and trying to take up some of the rice, by pushing it with its mouth towards the side of the plate, which kept it from moving, and in a very awkward way taking it into its mouth."