CUCKOOS AND CHAMELIONS. [To 'THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—Allow me to demur to the statement made by "A. W. T." in your issue of the 10th inst. 'that the chamelion is able to change his colour "at will." Your correspondent appears to regard this phenomenon, which has furnished so much copy to fabulists and matter to orators, as a recognized fact, whereas I thought it was as exploded as 'the tears of the crocodile or the reincarnation of the phoenix. I believe I am not singular in
attributing the variation in colour to the environments of the creature, and in no sense to its volition. Trout and many other animals chinge their hue to suit their surround- ings, and if "A. W. T." will produce a chamelion from a bag, and place it in an acacia in full leaf, were he to take his eye off it for a moment he would find the dusky reptile he handled indistinguishable in colour from the leaves a the tree. But I doubt whether the variation would extend as far as a sheet of notepaper, and I think the poet Gay, if I am not mistaken, when he tells us that the disputants "beheld the beast, and lo! 'twas white," avails himself of poetical licence. I must also confess myself incredulous as to the power of the cuckoo to vary the markings of the eggs she deposits to make them match (those of the stepmother selected. It is much more probable that this change is due either to the influence of some insect food, or that the other eggs exercise an actinic force externally on the stranger with which they come in contact. —I am, Sir, he., W. J. GARNETT.
Scarborough.
[Dryden was no doubt right about the chamelion when he attacked the insincere man who boasted his conscience :— "But yours is much of the chamelion hue, .
To change the dye with every different view.' (—En. Spectator.]
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