tardily than in its advance. When projected, the tongue acquired a thickness equal to the largest swan-quill, and a length not less, sometimes, than six or seven inches. Its consistence I attempted on one occasion to ascertain, by catching it between my fingers, when it imparted the feel of an elastic body, yielding slightly when pressed on, and expanding as soon as the pressure was removed. The experiment only caused a short delay in its progress, but neither altered its form or course, nor unfastened the prey from its extremity.
“The tongue is probably the sole agent of the Chameleon in obtaining food. Flies have often rested on its body, and though it has looked wistfully at them, it has had no means of taking them. I have frequently observed them on its very lips, without any attempt being made to seize them. Even when placed before it, if not sufficiently distant to afford room for the necessary evolution of the tongue, the Chameleon was under the necessity of retiring for the purpose.
“If the fly happened to be on a flat surface, so placed as to oblige the creature to direct its tongue perpendicularly against the surface, the cupped extremity would adhere, for a short time, in the same manner as a child's leather-sucker does to a stone. But the animal seemed most annoyed when seizing its prey on the sides of its cage, which was made of paper, the down of the paper sticking to the mucus on the tongue. On one occasion when two Chameleons attempted at the same moment to catch a fly placed between them, their tongues struck against each other, and remained connected for a short time.”
