How to See the British Museum in Four VisitsJerrold, Blanchard
History
How to See the British Museum in Four Visits
Jerrold, Blanchard
British Museum
allude to the lizard with a frill round its neck, which has been
universally likened to that worn by Queen Elizabeth: it is called the
frilled agama. It is supposed that this harmless sauroid extends this
frill to frighten away its enemies; as old ladies, who can preserve
their presence of mind in the neighbourhood of a bull, open their
umbrella to frighten it into an opposite direction. Under these
interesting sub-families are grouped the varieties of a species of
agama that has won for itself an imperishable reputation--having
furnished imaginative minds with matter for the most extravagant
speculations--and yielded to the political writer abundant sarcastic
images. No politician who has thought proper in the course of a long
career, to change his old principles for new ones (as housewives
exchange worn-out apparel for new gilded pottery); no philosopher who
has by turns embraced conflicting principles of human action; no man
of science who has published two opposite theories of the formation of
our universe, can pause without emotion before this case of classed
Chameleons; for the politician, the philosopher, and the man of
science have inevitably figured in hostile reviews under the head of
colour-changing sauroids. The popular notion respecting the
colour-changing powers of these lizards is, that at will the chameleon
can habit itself in any colour of the rainbow; that by turns it is a
red chameleon, a blue chameleon, a green chameleon, and a yellow
chameleon. The fact of the case is very far-from this notion.
Chameleons are found chiefly in Africa and India, but also in some of
the tropical islands. In their habits they are sluggards, lounging
generally about trees, and distending their long tongues covered with
a glutinous secretion, to secure passing insects, upon which they
subsist. They have eyes of wonderful power, and can look backwards and
forwards at the same moment; but as regards their colour, it is well
to assure the visitor, that their usual tint when resting in the shade
is a blue-grey, which sometimes pales to a lighter grey, turns green,
assumes a brown-grey tint, or darkens to a decided brown. These are
the sober observations of observant naturalists on the subject.
The class of reptiles to which the visitor should next direct his
attention are those classed by Cuvier and others under the head of
Ophidia, or
SERPENTS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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