their more frequent occurrence during July and August, they are thought to be the call notes of the male to the female. During the greater part of the day, the little creature lies quiescent in some cranny among the beams of the roof or in the wall of the house, where, however, it is ever watchful for the incautious fly that approaches its den, upon whom it darts forth with but little notice. But it is by no means confined to the habitations of men. Every old wall, and almost every tree, possesses a tenant or two of this species. It is excessively lively, and even when found quietly ensconced in a hole, generally manages to escape--its glittering little eyes (black, with yellow ochre iris) appearing to know no sleep; and an attempt to capture the runaway seldom results in more than the seizure of an animated tail, wrenched off with a jerk by the little fellow as it slips away, without loss of blood. The younger individuals are much darker than the larger and older animals, which are sometimes almost albinoes. In ordinary fly-catching habits, as they stick to the sides of a lamp, there is much similarity between this gecko and the little papehoo, or wall-lizard of China; but this is decidedly a larger and much more active animal, and often engages in a struggle with insects of very large size. The Chinese colonists of Formosa greatly respect the geckos, in consequence of a legend which attributes to them the honour of having once poisoned the supplies of an invading rebellious army, which was thereby totally cut to pieces. The geckos were raised to the rank of generals by the grateful Emperor of China; which honour, the legend states, they greatly appreciated, and henceforth devoted their energies to the extermination of mosquitoes and other injurious insects. CHAMELEONS, AND THEIR CHANGES. "Nil fuit unquam Sic impar sibi."--_Horat._ "Sure such a various creature ne'er was seen." _Francis, in imit._ The Chameleon tribe is a well-defined family of lizard-like reptiles, whose characters may be summed up as existing in the form of their feet; the toes, which are joined together or bound up together in two packets or bundles, opposed to each other; in their shagreen-like skin; in their prehensile tail; and in their extensile and retractile vermiform tongue. That the Chameleon was known to the ancients there is no doubt. Its name we derive directly from the _Chamelæo_ of the Latins. Aristotle's history of the animal proves the acute observation of that great zoologist--the absence of a sternum, the disposition of the ribs, the mechanism of the tail, the motion of the eyes, the toes bound up in opposable bundles, &c.--though he is not entirely correct on some points. Pliny mentions it, but his account is for the most part a compilation from Aristotle.