which was fastened a piece of whipcord with a running knot. After beating the bushes for some time, the negro discovered our game, basking in the sun, on the dry limb of a tree. On this he began whistling with all his might; to which the Guana was wonderfully attentive, stretching out his neck, and turning his head, as if to enjoy it more fully. The negro now approached still whistling: and, advancing his rod gently, began tickling with the end of it the sides and throat of the Guana, which seemed mightily pleased with the operation; for he turned on his back, and stretched himself out like a cat before the fire, and at length fairly fell asleep. The ne gro perceiving this, dexterously slipped the noose over his head, and with a jerk brought him to the ground."

The flesh is sometimes roasted, but more usually boiled, the fat being first taken out, which the natives melt and clarify.

The Guana is an animal easily tamed if taken young. Dr. Browne kept a full-grown one about his house for more than two months: at first it was very fierce and ill-natured; but after some days it grew more tame, and would, at length, pass the greatest part of the day on the bed or couch: but it always went out at night. As it walked along it frequently threw out its forked tongue; but Dr. Browne says that during all the time he had it he never observed that it ate any thing*.

* Browne's Jamaica, 462.

SCALY LIZARD*

The scaly Lizard is one of the British species. Its general length, from the nose to the end of the tail, is about six inches and a half. The upper part of the head is light brown, and the back and tail are. variously striped and spotted with light brown, black, white, and dark brown. The under parts of the body are of a dirty white.

It is an extremely active little creature, basking in hot weather on the sides of dry banks or about roots of old trees; but on being observed it instantly retreats to its hiding-place.

Its food is chiefly insects, which it pursues with great celerity but Mr. Edwards once surprised one of these Lizards in the act of fighting with a small bird that sate on her nest in a vine against a wall, with newly-hatched young. He supposed that the Lizard would have made them a prey, could he but have got them out of the nest. He watched the contest for some time; but on his near approach the Lizard dropped to the ground, and the bird flew offt.

These animals are themselves a prey to many of the feathered tribe. When an attempt is made to seize them, they generally effect an escape with considerable address. The tail is very brittle, often

* SYNONYMS.-Lacerta agilis. Linn.-Little brown Lizard. Edwards. Scaly L zard. Penn.-Penn. Brit. Zool, vol. 3. tab. 2. + Edwards, i. 34.

snapping off with the least roughness in handling them.

If taken and kept in a room, they may be in a great measure rendered tame and familiar.

GREEN LIZARD OF CAROLINA*.

These beautiful little animals are about five inches in length, and of a dusky green colour. The male has a red expansile pouch beneath his chin....

They frequent the houses in Carolina, and are suffered with impunity to sport on the tables and windows; which they do with great dexterity, and in a very diverting manner. The summer is the time when they are principally seen; for at the approach of cold weather they retreat to their recesses in the hollows and crevices of decayed trees, where they lie in a torpid state through the winter.

They are sometimes known to change their colour very suddenly in a hot day they are seen of a green colour; but if on the following day the weather becomes cold, the same animals will often appear brown.

It frequently happens that a few warm sunny days, in the early part of spring, so invigorate them, that they come out of their winter retire ments. If the weather suddenly changes to cold, they are so enfeebled as to incapacitate them from again seeking their retreats, and they die of cold.

Cats and the ravenous birds prey upon them.

* Lacerta bullaris. Linn. Catesby, ii. 65.

CHAMELEON*.

The Chamæleon is a native of India, Africa, and some of the warmer parts of Spain and Portugal. The usual length of its body is about ten inches, and that of the tail is nearly the same.

It is perfectly harmless, feeding only on insects, for which the structure of its tongue is peculiarly adapted, being long and missile, and furnished with a dilated, glutinous and somewhat tubular tip. By means of this it seizes insects with the greatest case, darting it out and instantaneously retracting it, with the prey secured on its tip, which it swallows whole. The skin is covered with small warts or granulations, and down the middle of the back it is serrated. The feet have five toes united three and two to enable it to lay firmly hold of the branches of trees, in which it principally resides; and to this end also its tail is prehensile, and is always coiled round the branch till the animal has secured a firm footing. Its motions are extremely slow. The lungs are so large as to allow it to inflate the body to a vast size. The structure and motions of its eyes are very singular: these are large and globular, and so formed that at the same instant it can look in different directions. One of them may frequently be seen to move when the other is at rest; or one will often be directed forwards, while

+ Lacerta Chamæleon. Linn. -Shaw's Gen. Zool. vol. 3. tab. 76.

the other is attending to some object behind, or in the same manner upwards and downwards.

:

The Chamæleon is principally celebrated for the singular property that it possesses of occasionally changing its colour. Not having ourselves witnessed this operation, we shall present the reader with the accounts of three persons who have there appears a considerable difference in the relations, which the reader must reconcile as well as he is able. The writers we here allude to are D'Obsonville, Hasselquist, and Dr. Russel.

The colour of the Chamæleon, says D'Obsonville, is naturally green, but it is susceptible of many shades, and particularly of three very distinct ones; Saxon green, deep green, and a shade bordering on blue and yellow green. When free, in health, and at ease, it is a beautiful green, some parts excepted, where the skin, being thicker and rougher, produces gradations of brown, red, or light grey. When the animal is provoked, in open air, and well fed, it becomes blue-green; but when feeble, or deprived of free air, the prevailing tint is the yellow-green. Under other circumstances, and especially at the approach of one of its own species, no matter of which sex, or when surrounded and teased by a number of insects thrown upon him, he then, almost in a moment, takes alternately the three dif ferent tints of green. If he is dying, particularly of hunger, the yellow is at first predominant; but in the first stage of putrefaction this changes to the colour of dead leaves.

It seems that the causes of these different varie