[104]Buffon remarks, such tales are without foundation, the life of the stag being not more than thirty or forty years.
[105]One of those popular errors which have descended from the ancients to our times; the chameleon feeds on insects, which it seizes by means of its long flexible tongue; the quantity of food which it requires appears, however, to be small in proportion to its bulk.
[106]This is another of the erroneous opinions respecting the chameleon, which has been very generally adopted. It forms the basis of Merrick’s poem of the Chameleon. The animal assumes various shades or tints, but the changes depend upon internal or constitutional causes, not upon any external object.
[107]This is, of course, without foundation, the honey being the sole object sought.
[108]We learn from Strabo, Ind. Hist. B. xv., that, in catching the monkey, the hunters took advantage of the propensity of these animals to imitate any action they see performed. “Two modes,” he says, “are employed in taking this animal, as by nature it is taught to imitate every action, and to take to flight by climbing up trees. When the hunters see an ape sitting on a tree, they place within sight of it a dish full of water, with which they rub their eyes; and then slyly substituting another in its place, full of bird-lime, retire and keep upon the watch. The animal comes down from the tree, and rubs its eyes with the bird-lime, in consequence of which the eyelids stick together, and it is unable to escape.” Ælian also says, Hist. Anim. B. xvii. c. 25, that the hunters pretend to put on their shoes, and then substitute, in their place, shoes of lead; the animal attempts to imitate them, and, the shoes being so contrived, when it has once got them on, it finds itself unable to take them off, or to move, and is consequently taken.
[109]It is said that the Emperor Charles V. had a monkey that played chess with him.
[110]This account is given by Suetonius, Life of Julius Cæsar, c. 61. Cuvier suggests that the hoofs may have been notched, and that the sculptor probably exaggerated the peculiarity, so as to produce the resemblance to a human foot.
[111]We here find Pliny tripping, for he has previously said, that man is the only animated being that sheds tears. In this Book, also, he represents the lion as shedding tears.