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CHAMELEON CIIAMFORT from the Seychelles islands, Isle of Reunion, Mauritius, and the Cape of Good Hope. The chameleon is well described by Aristotle in his u History of Animals." The name is derived from the Greek, and signifies little lion, or, as some maintain, camel lion. There is probably no animal about which more prejudices and errors have existed from the remotest antiquity than the chameleon. The two most remarkable faculties attributed to it are those of being able to live on air, and of changing color according to the objects to which it comes near ; the first it certainly does not possess, and the latter but partially. Like all other reptiles, it can re- main for months without eating, which, with its sudden changes of bulk, gave rise to the opinion that it lived on air. Chameleons eat flies and other insects, which they seize by means of their long sticky tongues, the only part of their bodies which they move with any vivacity. It is true that the chameleon changes its colors with great rapidity, but the changes are not de- termined by the colors of surrounding objects, nor by the greater or less amount of blood sent " Chameleon (Chamailio vulgaris). to the skin. Other reptiles possess this pow- er of changing color, as also do many fishes, as the coryphcena (vulgarly called dolphin), and many of the mollusks, as the argonaut and the squid. It has been ascertained by experi- ments that the varieties of color in the squid are due especially to changes in the surface of the skin from the voluntary contractions of the muscular fibres in the dermis, modifying the reflections from the pigment spots as well as from the colorless portions of the skin. It is probable, considering the scaly character of its skin, that similar surface reflections, from con- traction of the muscular fibres of the dermis, are the causes of the changes of color in the chameleon ; and that the inflation of the lungs and body, and the changes in the cutaneous circulation, are merely secondary agents. The natural color of the animal is a fine green, tinged in some parts with reddish brown and grayish white ; from this the hues vary to deep bluish green, yellow, blackish, and various shades of gray ; the colors are the brightest in the warm- est and sunniest weather. They are often seen of the same colors as surrounding objects, which they doubtless assume instinctively as a means of protection against their numerous enemies. The chameleon can also inflate its body even to its feet and tail, by slow and ir- regular motions ; this in a moderate degree may aid the muscular contractions of the skin in the production of its brilliant surface changes. The chameleon moves very slowly ; it will re- main for days on the branch of a tree, to which it fixes itself very firmly by means of its pecu- liarly divided feet and prehensile tail. This slowness of motion, and the absence of all de- fensive and offensive weapons, render it an easy prey to its enemies. Whether upon a tree or on the ground, it is an awkward animal. The native Africans and Asiatics consider chameleons harmless creatures, and even pet them in their dwellings on account of their de- struction of insect pests. When kindly treated they are very gentle, but they readily fight with each other, slowly opening and shutting their jaws, like the blades of scissors. The fe- male lays about a dozen eggs, which she depos- its in the sand, leaving them to be hatched by the heat of the sun. Were it not for their great fecundity the species would soon be destroyed. CHAMFORT, or Champfort, Sebastien Roeh Nico- las, a French author, born near Clermont, in Au- vergne, in 1741, died in Paris, April 13, 1794. He received a superior education, became suc- cessively a lawyer's clerk, a tutor, and secretary of a gentleman of Li6ge, and a writer for the Revue encyclopedique. He had to contend with many difficulties till 1764, when the suc- cessful performance of his comedy La jeune Indienne improved his prospects. His play Le marchand de Smyrne (1770) is regarded as his masterpiece, though his tragedy Mustaplia et Zeangir (1776) was more successful, chiefly owing to the partiality for it of Louis XVI., and particularly of Marie Antoinette ; and a pension of 1,200 livres was granted him, be- sides a salary of 2,000 livres as secretary of the prince of Conde. He soon resigned the lat- ter employment to join Mme. Helv6tius at Au- teuil, who had befriended him during his early struggles. After having won several academ- ical prizes, and one for the best eloge on La Fontaine, instituted by Necker in the hope that La Harpe, who was among the competi- tors, would win it, Chamfort was admitted to the academy in 1781. He afterward became reader to Madame Elisabeth, for whom he pre- pared a commentary on La Fontaine's fables. Smarting to some extent under the -patronizing manners of French princes and nobles toward men of letters in their employ, he sympathized with the revolution, and the title of the pam- phlet of Sieyes on the tiers etat, as well as the saying 0-uerre aux chateaux, paix aux chau- mieres, and other pithy utterances, have been ascribed to him. He prepared for Mirabeau his Discours sur les academies, and also assisted Talleyrand in some of his reports. But subse- quently he was frightened by the excesses of