[98]The tongue of the crocodile is flat, and adheres to the lower jaw, so as to be incapable of motion.
[99]The water of the Nile abounds with small leeches, which attach to the throat of the crocodile, and, as it has no means of removing them, it allows the trochilus to enter its mouth for this purpose also.
[100]Although this account is sanctioned by all the ancient naturalists, it is called in question by Cuvier and other modern writers.
[101]The animal here referred to was not the dolphin but the Squalus centrina, or spinax of Linnæus.
[102]Cuvier says that no antlers are added after the eighth year.
[103]This is mentioned by Aristotle, but it is quite unfounded. Without doubt the story arose from the fact that the stag in September rubs the velvet off his horns against the trees, until it hangs in strings from the antlers. These are at first greenish in color, then brown as they grow dry and fall off.
[104]Buffon remarks, such tales are without foundation, the life of the stag being not more than thirty or forty years.
[105]One of those popular errors which have descended from the ancients to our times; the chameleon feeds on insects, which it seizes by means of its long flexible tongue; the quantity of food which it requires appears, however, to be small in proportion to its bulk.
[106]This is another of the erroneous opinions respecting the chameleon, which has been very generally adopted. It forms the basis of Merrick’s poem of the Chameleon. The animal assumes various shades or tints, but the changes depend upon internal or constitutional causes, not upon any external object.
[107]This is, of course, without foundation, the honey being the sole object sought.