thro' the grass,
And up the fluted shaft, _with short, quick, spring_
To vanish in the chinks which time has made."[1]

[Footnote 1: ROGERS' _Paestum_.]

One of the most beautiful of this race is the _green calotes_[1], in
length about twelve inches, which, with the exception of a few dark
streaks about the head, is as brilliant as the purest emerald or
malachite. Unlike its congeners of the same family, it never alters this
dazzling hue, whilst many of them possess the power, like the chameleon,
but in a less degree, of exchanging their ordinary colours for others
less conspicuous. The _C. ophiomachus_, and another, the _C.
versicolor_, exhibit this faculty in a remarkable manner. The head and
neck, when the animal is irritated or hastily swallowing its food,
becomes of a brilliant red (whence the latter has acquired the name of
the "blood-sucker"), whilst the usual tint of the rest of the body is
converted into pale yellow. The _sitana_[2], and a number of others,
exhibit similar phenomena.

[Footnote 1: Calotes viridis, _Gray_.]

[Footnote 2: Sitana Ponticereana, _Cuv_.]

_Chameleon_.--The true chameleon[1] is found, but not in great numbers,
in the dry districts in the north of Ceylon, where it frequents the
trees, in slow pursuit of its insect prey. Whilst the faculty of this
creature to blush all the colours of the rainbow has attracted the
wonder of all ages, sufficient attention has hardly been given to the
imperfect sympathy which subsists between the two lobes of the brain,
and the two sets of nerves which permeate the opposite sides of its
frame. Hence, not only have each of the eyes an action quite independent
of the other, but one side of its body would appear to be sometimes
asleep whilst the other is vigilant and active: one will assume a green
tinge whilst the opposite one is red; and it is said that the chameleon
is utterly unable to swim, from the incapacity of the muscles of the two
sides to act in concert.

[Footnote 1: Chamaelio vulgaris, _Daud_.]

_Ceratophora_.--A unique lizard, and hitherto known only by two
specimens, one in the British Museum, and another in that of Leyden, is
the _Ceratophora Stoddartii_, distinguished by the peculiarity of its
having no external ear, whilst its muzzle bears on its extremity the
horn-like process from which it takes its name. It has recently been
discovered by Dr. Kelaart to be a native of the higher Kandyan hills,
where it is sometimes seen in t