CHAMELEON (kei-me'le-15n). The chameleon is the world's champion turncoat. One moment it is a brilliant green; the next it may be a gray-black, or chestnut and black, or covered with yellow spots.
This is nature's way of protecting this sluggish little lizard, for it moves so slowly that if it did not have the power of taking on the color of its surroundings, and so making itself almost invisible, it would soon be exterminated by snakes and birds which prey upon it. The color changes are accomplished by layers of cells beneath its transparent skin, containing yellow, black, and red coloring matter. These cells are under the control of the nervous system, and by contracting and expanding produce changes in coloration.
Even without this power the chameleon would be one of the most extraordinary of animals. Its great protruding eyes are entirely covered with eye lids except for a tiny round hole, and the lids move with the constantly rolling eyes. What is still more amazing, the chameleon can roll its eyes independ ently in any direction, so that one eye may be look ing at a fly in front of it, while the other keeps watch over the animal's shoulder. As another compensa tion for its slowness, the chameleon has a tongue which it shoots out like a flash of lightning, more than half the length of its body, skilfully catching unwary insects on the sticky end.
The true chameleons, of which there are more than 50 species, are found only in Africa and a few other parts of the Old World. The best-known species has a body about six inches long and a tail nearly as long again, with which it clings to twigs.
The so-called American chameleon belongs to a quite distinct branch of the lizard family, the I guani dae. It is smaller and more active than its Old World namesake, but has the same remarkable prop erty of changing color.
Scientific name of common chameleon, Chameleon vul garis; of American chameleon, Chameleon carolinensis.