Chameleons are very frequently met with, not only in the woods but also in the open country of Imèrina; and in our gardens at the capital we often see them on the bushes or the paths, from the little baby one of an inch long to the full-grown one of six to eight inches. In the paths near the sanatorium one may see them digging holes and depositing their eggs, which are about the size of a small bean. Their colouring is often very beautiful, with its shades of green and yellow and black, brown and red markings, and there are certainly very rapid changes of colour according to the different surroundings. The bright tints they exhibit in sunshine and on leaves become dull dark brown in the shade, or on dark coloured resting-places. Sometimes they lose all colour, for I one day saw, on the path near the woods, a chameleon in the coils of a small snake, which had wound itself three times round the body and was apparently preparing to swallow it, beginning at the head, although it seemed almost impossible that the bulky body of the chameleon could pass through so small an opening. And this was a curious fact: the chameleon was perfectly _white_. From a sentimental pity for the little creature, I unwound the snake from it and placed it on a bush. It was apparently uninjured and soon began to resume its ordinary colouring, of which its terror had temporarily deprived it. It is a noteworthy fact that Madagascar is one of the head-quarters of the Chameleonidæ, for out of fifty known species twenty-one at least are found in this island; and of the twenty-five kinds which have been enumerated as having horns and other remarkable processes on the head, no less than seventeen are peculiar to this country. One species has a nose dilated and toothed on each side; another has the top of the head conically produced; while four species have two flat diverging nasal prominences covered with large scutes; and in yet another species, the single long conical appendage to the nose is flexible. The largest Madagascar chameleon known is about a foot long and is called Ramìlahèloka, which may perhaps be (freely) translated, “Naughty old boy,” probably from its uncanny appearance and earthy colour; it is apparently always found on the ground. Of this creature the natives assert that anyone stepping on it, accidentally or otherwise, or seizing it, becomes ill. From the slow, deliberate pace of the chameleon, the Malagasy proverb advises foresight and retrospect: “_Ataovy toy ny dìan-tàna_: _jerèo ny alòha, todìho ny aorìana_”—_i.e._ “Act like the stepping of a chameleon: look where you are going, look back the way you have come.” Naughty little native boys are fond of making the male chameleons fight together, and it is curious to see how widely the red mouth is opened at such times. [Sidenote: LAND-SHELLS]