Eccentricities of the Animal Creation.

by John Timbs

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.

CHAMELEONS.

"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."

In the autumn of 1868, a pair of Chameleons, in the possession of the Hon. Lady Cust, of Leasowe Castle, Cheshire, produced nine active young ones, like little alligators, less than an inch long. Such a birth has been, it is believed, very rare in this country. It was remarked, in the above case, that the male and female appeared altogether indifferent about their progeny.