THE CURIOUS CHAMELEON

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 41, 11 May 1927, Page 14

THE CURIOUS CHAMELEON

In this little creature, only twelve inches long, Nature seems to have perfected her schemes of protection for her children. He belongs to an interesting group of reptiles. The lizard, the beauty of the family, is his cousin, and though in appearance the chameleon cannot come near him he outdoes him in cleverness. To begin with. Nature has given him a foot that is more like a pair of tongs than anything else. The toes are set opposite each other, so that they naturally close round the branches of the trees that are his constant home. His legs are so long that he can walk hand over hand, so to speak, with all his four feet in a line on a single thin branch. And, seeing that his long tail, as in the case of the monkey, acts as a fifth foot, no slippery bark has any peril for him. Although so well equips d in limbs, the chameleon’s speed is slow. He really excels the most in his great capacity for sitting still. He will remain motionless for days, awaiting his prey. This prey takes the form of insects, and at once the problem arises as to how a creature who is the very opposite of rapidly-moving inserteaters like the swallow and the tat can catch anything as elusive as a butterfly. There, again, Nature has helped him in two ways. He can shoot out a tongue half the length of hi> body—a queer tongue, something like a long-handled Indian club. The club end, covered with a sticky fluid, he aims with deadly precision at a passing fly, and instantly whisks it into his mouth. What is more, his eyes work independently. He can look before and behind, or to the extreme right and left, at the same time, and so be doubly aware of possible prey. These eyes are queer, blind-looking organs, covered all over with an eyelid that has a little hole in it just in front of the pupil- They are enormous in comparison with the face, and help to give it its extraordinary look. In fact, it would be difficut to find a face less like a face than the chameleon’s. From a front view it looks like the engine of a minute armoured train. The mouth, which comes half-way down the .head, i- ; a large, horizontal slit, and can oper very widely. This creature, which moves slowly must surely fall an easy prey to lbenemies. This, again, Nature has foreseen and provided for by a colour protection of the highest order. In fac L so excellently is he tinted that it b very difficult to tell where the branch begins and where the chameleon ends And here we come to another peculiarity. The colour of his skin varies with what he eats, and wha he is feeling like. Hunger, thirst an fear produce an emotion in him which acts on the colour particles in the ska in the identical way that sudden confusion or fright will turn a childface scarlet or deathly white, so if you watch his skin you can realise something of what he is seeing an feeling. The chameleon lives in hot in Southern Europe, parts of Africa, and America.