... Upon Excitation or warming, she becomes suddenly full of little black Spots, equally dispersed on the sides, with small black Streaks on the Eyelids; all which afterward do vanish. The Skin is grain’d with globular Inequalities, like the Leather call’d Shagreen. The grossest Grain is about the Back and Head, then on the Legs; on the Sides and Belly, finest; which, perhaps, in several Postures, may shew several Colours; and when this Animal is in full Vigour, may also have in some sort, _Rationem Speculi_, and reflect the Colours of Bodies adjacent; which, together with the mixture of Colours in the Skin, may have given occasion to the old Tradition, _of changing into all Colours_[210]. Footnote 210: _Lowthorp_’s _Abridg._ vol. ii, p. 816. A certain curious Gentleman, made the following Experiment, when he lived at _Smyrna_, in _Asia-minor_: He bought some _Cameleons_, to try how long they could be preserved alive under Confinement; he kept them in a large Cage, and allowed them the Liberty to take the fresh Air, which they suck’d in with Pleasure, and made them brisker than ordinary. He never saw them either eat or drink, but seem’d to live on the Fluid in which we breathe. The Antients were persuaded that _Cameleons_ fed upon the Air, for which reason one of the Fathers calls it a _living Skin_[211]; but now it appears by Experience, that they feed upon different Insects, as Palmer-worms, Locusts, Beetles, Flies, and also Leaves of Vegetables. Father _Feuillée_[212], in a Journey into _Asia-minor_, opened one of these Animals, and found in its Belly Peach-Leaves, which were not then digested.——_N. B._ Digestion is very slow in _Cameleons_, which is the reason why they take so little Nourishment. Footnote 211: _Pellicula vivit. Tertull. de Pallio_, cap. 3. Footnote 212: _Feuillée_’s _Journal. Franckf._ 1597. p. 3. The same Father mentions a small Lizard, which he saw in _Peru_, that was not above an Inch thick, which he calls _Chameleontides_, because he changed his Colour, like the _Cameleons_; being in a certain Situation, he saw it of a dun Colour; in another, ’twas green.... This little Creature, he says, had the same Figure and Proportion as the _Great Lizard_; nam’d by the _Spaniards_, _Iquanna_; and _Senembi_, by _Marcgravius_; and he makes that _Lizard_ a fourth kind of _Cameleon_, and to be added to the two kinds of _Bellonius_, one of which is to be found in _Arabia_, and the other in _Egypt_, and to that mention’d by _Faber_, _Lynceus_, which may be seen in _Mexico_. Their Tongue is somewhat peculiar, it being as long as their Body, with which they catch Flies, and other Insects, which settle on their Tongues, to suck the viscous slimy Matter, adherent to them. The _Cameleon_ puts out his Tongue to draw them upon it, and when ’tis full of these Insects, he pulls it in with wonderful Agility. Others think, it encloses its Prey with the tip of its Tongue, which is made in a form proper for that purpose.