CAMELEON. Moses forbids the Hebrews to eat the Flesh of a Cameleon, it being an unclean Animal. The Cameleon is a Levit. xi. 30.little creature like a Lizard, but with a larger and longer Head. It has four Feet, and on each Foot three Claws. Its Tail is long; with this as well as with its Feet it fastens itself to the Branches of Trees. Its Tail is flat, its Nose long, and made in an obtuse Point; its Back is sharp, its Skin plaited, and jagged like a Saw from the Neck to the last Joint of the Tail, and upon its Head it has something like a Comb. In other respects it is made like a Fish; that is to say, it has no neck. Some have asserted, that it lives only upon Air; for which reason Tertullian1 calls it a living Skin: But they who have observed it more nearly, take notice that it feeds on Flies, which it catches with its Tongue; its Tongue is about ten lines long, and three large, made of white Flesh, round, and flat at the end; or it is hollow and open in some sort like an Elephant’s Trunk. In like manner it shrinks or grows longer. This Creature darts it upon Flies, draws it back immediately, and there they stick upon it as it were upon Glew.
It is said likewise to assume the colour of those things, to which it is applied;2 that it grows white upon any thing that is white, and black or red on any thing black or red. But our modern Naturalists assure us, that its natural colour when it is at rest, and in the Shade, is a blueish grey. There are some yellow, and others green, which are of the smaller kind. When it is exposed to the Sun, this grey changes into a darker grey, inclining to a dun colour; and its parts which have least of the light upon them, are changed into different colours, which form spots of the bigness of about half an Inch. The grain of its Skin when the light does not shine upon it, is like Clothes mixed with many colours. Sometimes as we handle it, it seems to be speckled with dark spots inclining to green. If it is put upon a black Hat, it appears to be of a Violet colour. Sometimes again, if it is wrapped up in Linen, when it is taken off it is white; but it is not true that it takes the colour of those Stuffs which it is covered with: It changes colour in some parts only of the Body. This is what is said of the Cameleon.
But we very much question, whether the Hebrew term, which the Author of the Vulgate has translated Camelion, and which Moses forbids the Hebrews to eat, as an unclean creature, be truly a Cameleon. Bochart, who has considered with much application what relates to the Animals, which the Scripture mentions, is of opinion, that the Hebrew3 hakoah signifies a sort of large strong Lizard, found often in Arabia, which attacks Serpents in their Holes, drives them out, and kills them. The Arabians call it Aluarlo.
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