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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50576	Memoir's for a natural history of animals containing the anatomical descriptions of several creatures dissected by the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris / Englished by Alexander Pitfeild ... ; to which is added an account of the measure of a degree of a great circle of the earth, published by the same Academy and Englished by Richard Waller ...; Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire naturelle des animaux. English	Perrault, Claude, 1613-1688.; Pitfield, Alexander, 1658-1728.; Waller, Richard.; Académie royale des sciences (France)	1688 (1688)	Wing M1667_PARTIAL; Wing M1582_PARTIAL; ESTC R2399	302,762	395

them watching the opportunity when they do pass or Sleep under him to Kill them with his Foam which he lets fall upon them Belonius has observed two Species of Camelions one whereof is found in Arabia the other in Aegypt Faber Lynceus adds a Third which is in Mexico That which we describe is the Aegyptian one which is the greatest of all For those of Arabia and Mexico are not ordinarily more then six inches long and ours which was brought us alive was in all comprehending the Tail eleven Inches and a half in length Pliny is greatly mistaken when he makes the Camelion as big as the Crocodile which is the biggest of all Animals or if he intends to compare it to the Land Crocodile he deceives his Reader for that is less known than the Camelion and whereof no body has spoken but himself or upon his Report Salmasius attributes this Fault to the ill Translation which Pliny has made of the Book which Democritus writ of the Camelion in which according to the Ionick Dialect the Crocodile is called by the Name which commonly signifies the Lizard The Head of ours was an Inch and ten Lines from the Head to the beginning of the Tail it was four Inches and a half the tail was five and the Feet were each two Inches and a half long The Bulk of the Body was found different at several times For sometimes it was two Inches from the Back unto the under part of the Belly at other times it was scarce above an Inch according as it swelled or contracted it self this swelling and this contracting was not only in the Thorax and Belly but it reached even to its fore and hind-legs and its Tail. This particular Circumstance which Aristotle has observed makes us to think upon what Theophrastes says of the Camelions Lungs viz. That they do extend thro' the whole Body Now these contrary Motions of swelling and contracting are not done as in other Creatures when to breath they dilate their Breast and presently contract it successively and orderly for we have seen it puft up above two Hours during which time it abated a little but very impreceptibly and swelled again a little but with this difference that the Dilatation was more suddain and visible and that by long and unequal intervals We have likewise seen it continue unswelled for a long space and much longer than swelled In this Condition it appeared so lean that the Spine was sharp as if by the extenuation of the Muscles which are without along the Vertebrae the Skin was fastened upon the spinous and oblique Apophyses which discovered three Eminencies The Ribbs might be counted and the Tendons of the fore and hind-legs appeared very distinctly to the Eye But neither the Vertebrae like a Saw which Gesner and Landius do in Scaliger report were seen on the Back nor the Pricks which Panarolus saith were placed there by Nature for its defence appeared to us how lean soever it grew it s back only remained sharp and keen without being jagged or having any Points the Apophyses of the Spine being square at the end as in the generality of Animals This lankness was known likewise when it turned its Body for it seemed like an empty Sack that is twisted which Tertullian who was of the same Country with our Camelion had very well observed when he says that this Animal was but a living Skin This Skin was very cold to the touch and notwithstanding the great lankness I have been describing it was impossible to feel the beating of the Heart which was more secret and obscure than the motion of its Breathing The Superficies of the Skin was uneven and raised in little Eminencies like Chagrine being nevertheless very soft to the touch because that every Eminence was very smooth These Eminencies or Grains were of a different size the greatest part were like the head of a middle-sized Pinn viz. The Grains which covered the fore and hind-leggs the Belly and Tail There were others somewhat bigger of an oval Shape upon the Shoulders and Head and some of these large Grains were higher and more pointed to witt under the Throat where they made a Row like Beads which reached from the lower lipp to the Breast The Grains which were upon the Back and Head were joyned and heaped together sometimes to the Number of Seven sometimes Six Five Four Three and Two leaving between these different heaps some distances covered with other little Grains almost imperceptible which were generally of a pale Red and Yellowish like the bottom of the Skin which appeared between these parcels of Grains This Ground changed not Colour till the Animal was dead at which time the little Points grew whiteish and the Ground whereon they were sowed changed its Red into a Dark-Gray It has been since found that all these Grains as well the great as the little ones were made by the Skin which swelled outward being hollow on the inside in the place of every Grain like plates of Metal which are chaced or stamped in part also thro' several little Pellicles very slender and lying one upon another which increased the thickness of every Eminence which were easily raised when they were scraped with a Penn-knife But all this would not make the Skin resemble that of a Crocodile as Aristotle with most Authors would have it For the Crocodile has upon its Back very large thick Scales proportionable to those under its Belly and they are ranged one upon another whereas the Eminencies of the Camelion's Skin are spread without Order and little differing in size The Colour of all the Eminences of our Camelion when it was at rest in the shade and had continued a long time untoucht was a Blewish-Gray excepting under the Paws which was a White inclining to Yellow and the Interval of the Heap of Grains which was of a Pale and yellowish Red as aforesaid And it is probable that the natural Colour of the Camelion's Skin which according to Aristotle is Black was in ours that Gray which covered the Skin all over when in Repose and which remained on the inside of the Skin when excoriated Though the out-side had sometime after its Death preserved the Spots and different Colours which were there at the Minute it expired but which were well near all obscured when the Skin was dryed Now this Gray which coloured all the Camelion exposed to the Light changed when in the Sun and all the places of its Body which were inlightened instead of their Blewish Colour took up a Brownish Gray inclining to a Minime The rest of the Skin which was not illuminated by the Sun changed its Gray into several brisk shining Colours which made Spots about half a Finger in bigness which reached from the Crest of the Spine to the middle of the Back others appeared likewise upon the Ribbs fore-leggs and Tail. All these Spots were of an Isabella Colour through the mixture of a pale Yellow wherewith the Grains