BASILISK.

(LACERTA BASILISCUS.)

MODERN naturalists assert, that none of the Lizard tribe are venomous * : they were formerly, however, regarded as being severely so; Shakspeare has armed them with formidable power:

Like a foul misshapen stigmatick

Mark'd by the destinies to be avoided,
Like venom'd toad, or lizards' dreadful stings.
K. Henry VI. Pt. III. act ii. sc. 2.

Their chiefest prospect murdering basilisks,
Their softest touch as smart as lizards' stings.
K. Henry VI. Pt. II. act iii. sc .2.

The most marvellously destructive lizard was the Basilisk, which, ancient authors have said, had the power of striking its victim dead by a

* Cuvier, vol. ix. p. 208. Pennant, Brit. Zool. vol. ii. p. 22.

single glance. Our immortal bard has repeated allusions to this surprising faculty :

Make me not sighted like the basilisk;

I've looked on thousands who have sped the better By my regard, but kill'd none so.

Winter's Tale, act i. sc. 2.

Look not upon me, for your eyes are wounding;
Yet do not go away: come, basilisk,

And kill the innocent gazer with thy sight.

K. Henry VI. Pt. II. act iii. sc. 6.

Your eyes, which hitherto have borne in them,
Against the French that met them in their bent,
The fatal balls of murdering basilisks.

K. Henry V. act v. sc. 2.

O, no, no, no, 'tis true; here, take this too,

It is a basilisk unto mine eye;

Kills me to look on't.

Cymbeline, act ii. sc. 4.

I'll slay more gazers than the basilisk.

K. Henry VI. Pt. III. act iii. sc. 2.

The Basilisk of the ancients is a fabulous existence, to be found only in the representations of painters and poets. The animal known in modern natural history by this name, is a species of lizard of a singular shape, and particularly

distinguished by a crest*, which predominates along the entire back. It is a perfectly harmless animal, and a native of South America.t

* Pope's epithet is therefore correctly appropriate, The crested basilisk and speckled snake.

Messiah.

† Shaw, Nat. Miscel. vol. iv. pl. 142. Cuvier, vol. ix.

p. 227.

CHAMELEON.

(LACERTA CHAMELEON.)

THE Chameleon has been known from all antiquity, and has been long celebrated for its supposed faculty of living upon air, and changing colour according to the bodies to which it approximates. This mistaken supposition has found its way, in several instances, into poetry.

As the chameleon, who is known
To have no colour of his own,

But borrows from his neighbour's hue
His white or black, his green or blue,
And struts as much in ready light,
Which credit gives him upon sight.

PRYOR. Poems, p. 177., edit. 1709.

No living thing, whate'er its food, feasts there,
But the chameleon, who can feast on air.
CHURCHILL. Prophecy of Famine.

While I, condemned to thinnest fare,

Like those I flatter, live on air.

GAY. Fable 7.

Stretch'd at its ease, the beast I view'd,
And saw it eat the air for food.

MERRICK. Fable, The Chameleon.

On that hope

I build my happiness, I live upon it,
Like the chameleon, on its proper food,
The unsubstantial air.

HURDIS. Sir Thomas More, act ii.

Observation, at the present day, has done justice to these fables, of which this animal is the object. The colours of the Chameleon do, in fact, change with equal frequency and rapidity; but it is by no means true, that they are determined by those of surrounding objects. Their shades depend upon the volition of the animal, on the state of its feelings, on its good or bad health, and are, besides, subordinate to climate and to sex. It was observed by Pliny, that no animal was so timid as the Chameleon, and, in fact, having no means of defence, and being unable to secure its safety by flight, it must frequently experience internal fears and agitations more or less considerable. Its epidermis is transparent, its skin yellow, and its