and its islands, in Mexico, in Africa, and in some of the warmer parts of Spain and Portugal. The whole skin of the Chameleon is strewed over with little knobs, like shagreen; these are extremely smooth, and more remarkable on the head (which is particularly flat on the top and both sides), and are surrounded with minute, and almost imperceptible, grains. The nostrils are placed at the tip of the muzzle, which is somewhat rounded. The mouth is wide, and the bones of the jaws denticulated, so as to represent small teeth. The tongue is of a very extraordinary form; being composed of white solid flesh, about ten lines long, and three broad, round, a little flattish towards the end, hollow, and open, somewhat like the end of an elephant's trunk. With this instrument it seizes insects, on which it subsists, with wonderful quickness. Its eyes are covered by a rough membrane, which is divided by a narrow horizontal slit, through which the pupil is seen; and they have the singular faculty of looking in different directions at the same instant.

Whether climbing slowly along the branches of trees, or concealing itself below the leaves in expectation of insects, or walking deliberately on the ground, the Chameleon is always extremely ugly in its appearance, having neither agreeable proportions, nor beauty of form, nor elegant movements, to please the eye of the observer, so that no one can attempt to catch, or even to touch it, without disgust. Even its walk is disagreeable, as it has a ridiculous appearance of gravity, from the animal seeming never to lift up one foot till it is thoroughly assured of the firmness of the rest. Of the changes of colour we must now speak more particularly.

When at rest and in the shade for some time, the grains or little eminences on the skin are sometimes pale red, and the soles of the feet are white slightly tinged with yellow. This colour changes, when exposed to the light of the sun: that part of the skin

on which the rays of the sun fall, is frequently of a brownish gray, while the unilluminated part is of a beautiful fawn colour, produced by the mixture of pale yellow, which the granular eminences assume, joined with a clear red, that then appears on the plain skin between the grains. This splendid colouring is usually distributed in blotches, between which the grains appear mixed with blue and greenish, and the flat skin is reddish. At other times the whole skin seems of a beautiful green, spotted with yellow. When touched, it often becomes suddenly spotted all over with pretty large blackish blotches, mixed with some green; but it is now thoroughly ascertained, that it by no means assumes the colours of the bodies which are around it, and that those which it accidentally presents are not extended over the whole of its body, as was formerly imagined. It was likewise believed to have the power of living on air alone; but this absurd belief is now exploded.

THIS animal, which is easily recognised by its livid appearance and sluggish and disgusting movements, is, in figure, nature, and appetites, like the frog. In Europe it is of a considerable size, the smallest individuals measuring from four to six inches in length.

Its eyes are remarkably beautiful, having a brilliant reddish gold-coloured iris surrounding the dark pupil, and forming a striking contrast with the remainder of its body.

These animals are so extremely numerous in Carthagena and Porto Bello in America, that in rainy weather, not only all the marshy grounds, but the gardens, courts, and streets, are almost covered with them; so much so, that many of the inhabitants believe that every drop of rain is converted into a Toad. If it happen to rain during the night, all the Toads quit their hiding places, and then crawl about in such numbers, as almost literally to touch each other, and hide the surface of the earth; on such occasions it is impossible to stir out of doors without trampling them under foot at every step.

When irritated, this creature emits from various parts of its skin a kind of frotny fluid that, in our climate, produces no further unpleasant symptoms than slight inflammation, from its weakly acrimonious nature. It is persecuted and murdered wherever it appears, on the supposition merely that because it is ugly it must in consequence be venomous; and its reputation as a poisonous animal obtained for it among the superstitious so many preternatural powers, that the reputed dealers in magic art are reported to have made use of it in their compounds. It is, however, a perfectly innoxious animal, and may be rendered tame and docile.

The female Toads deposit their spawn early in the spring, in the form of necklace-like chains or strings of beautifully transparent gluten, three or four feet in length, enclosing the ova in a double series throughout. These have the appearance of so many jet black globules; they are, however, nothing more than the larva, or tadpoles, lying in a globular form. These break from their confinement in about a fortnight, and afterwards undergo changes very similar to the tad

poles of the frog. They become complete about the beginning of autumn, when the young animals are frequently to be seen in immense multitudes.

The Toad becomes torpid towards the conclusion of autumn, and remains in that condition during the whole of the winter months. There is one singular but well authenticated circumstance relative to it, for which naturalists have hitherto been unable to account, and which long excited curiosity. It has repeatedly been found alive in blocks of stone, marble, and other solid substances, in which it must have been imbedded for centuries.

THE Common Frog is known throughout Europe, and in the parts of America, about Hudson's Bay, as far north as the sixty-first degree of latitude, being almost every where seen in moist situations, or wherever it can command a sufficient quantity of insects, worms, &c. on which it feeds. In colour it varies considerably, but its general tinge is olive brown, variegated on the upper parts of the body and limbs with irregular blackish spots; those on the limbs being mostly disposed in a transverse direction: beneath each eye

is a longish mark or patch, reaching to the setting on of the fore legs, and which seems to form one of its principal distinctions.

It is generally in the month of March that the Frog deposits its ova or spawn, consisting of a large heap or clustered mass of gelatinous transparent eggs, in each of which is imbedded the embryo, or tadpole, in the form of a round black globule. The spawn commonly lies more than a month, or sometimes five weeks, before the young or tadpoles are hatched from it; but during this period each egg gradually enlarges in size, and a few days before the time of exclusion, the young animals may be perceived to move about in the surrounding gluten.

The form of the Frog is light and elegant, and its appearance lively; the limbs finely calculated for the peculiar motions of the animal, and the hind feet strongly webbed, to assist its progress in the water, to which it occasionally retires during the frosts of winter, when it lies in a state of torpidity, either deeply plunged in the soft mud at the bottom of stagnant waters, or in the hollows beneath their banks, till it is awakened from its slumber by the return of spring. In the countries round Hudson's Bay, it is often found frozen hard, in which state it is as brittle as glass; yet, by wrapping it in warm skins and exposing it to a slow fire, it will return to life. The Frog is supposed to attain its full growth in five years, and to live fifteen.