From Forbes's work we extract the following particulars respecting The Chameleon.

The greatest curiosity in the East, says Forbes, is the Chameleon. found in every thicket. I kept one for several weeks, of which, as it differed in many respects from those described in Arabia, and other places, 1 shall mention a few particulars. The chameleon of the Concan, including the tail, is about nine inches long; the body only half that length, varying in circumference, as it is more or less inflated ; the head, like that of a fish, is immoveably fixed to the shoulders; but every inconvenience is removed by the structure of its eyes, which, like spheres rolling on an invisible axis, are placed in deep cavities, projecting from the head ; through a small perforation in the exterior convexity, appears a bright pupil, surrounded with a yellow iris, which, by the singular formation and motion of the eye, enables the animal to see what passes before, behind, or on either side ; and it can give one eye all these motions, while the other remains perfectly still; a hard rising protects these delicate organs, another extends from the forehead to the nostrils : the mouth is large, and furnished with teeth, with a tongue half the length of the body, and hollow like an elephant's trunk; it darts nimbly at flies and other insects, which it seems to prefer to the aerial food generally supposed to be its sustenance. The legs are longer than usual in the licerta genus ; on the fore feet are three toes nearest the body, and two without; the hinder exactly the reverse; with these claws it clings fast to the branches, to which it sometimes entwines itself by the tail, and remains suspended ; the skin is granulated like shagreen, except a range of hard excrescences, or denticulations, on the ridge of the back, which are always of the same colour as the body; whereas a row of similar projections beneath continue perfectly white, notwithstanding any metamorphosis of the animal.

The general colour of the chameleon so long in my possession, was a pleasant green, spotted with pale blue ; from this it changed to a bright yellow, dark olive, and a dull green; but never appeared to such advantage as when irritated, or a dog approached it; the body was then considerably inflated, and the skin clouded like tortoise-shell, its shades of yellow, orange, green, and black. A black object always caused an almost instantaneous transformation : the room appropriated for its accommodation was skirted by a board painted black ; this the chameleon carefully avoided ; but if he accidentally drew near it, or we placed a black hat in his way, he was reduced to a hideous skeleton, and, from the most lively tints, became black as jet: on removing the cause, the effect as suddenly ceased ; the sable hue was succeeded by a brilliant colouring, and the body was again inflated