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The most beautiful of the race is the green calotes , in length about twelve inches, which, with the exception of a few dark streaks about the head, is as brilliant as the purest emerald or malachite.
The Calotes versicolor; and another, the Calotes ophioimachus, of which a figure is attached, possess in a remarkable degree the faculty, above alluded to, of changing their hue. The sitana , and a number of others, exhibit similar phenomena.
In the Indian Calotes nigrilabris there is a still greater difference; the lips also of the male are black, whilst those of the female are green. In the Proctotretus tenuis of Chile the male alone is marked with spots of blue, green, and coppery-red. For Proctotretus, see 'Zoology of the Voyage of the "Beagle"; Reptiles, by Mr. Bell, p. 8.
The lyre-headed lizard , which is not uncommon in the woods about Kandy, is more bulky than any of the species of Calotes, and not nearly so active in its movements. As usually observed it is of a dull greenish brown, but when excited its back becomes a rich olive green, leaving the head yellowish: the underside of the body is of a very pale blue, almost approaching white.
This results from the great development of the muscles of the jaws; the strength of which is such that they can crush the hardest integuments of the beetles on which they feed. The calotes will permit its teeth to be broken, rather than quit its hold of a stick into which it may have struck them.
For the Lizards of S. Africa, see 'Zoology of S. Africa: Reptiles, by Sir Andrew Smith, pl. 25 and 39. For the Indian Calotes, see 'Reptiles of British India, by Dr. Both sexes of many species are beautifully coloured exactly alike; and there is no reason to suppose that such colours are protective.
Callidryas, colours of sexes. Callionymus lyra, characters of the male. Callorhinus ursinus, relative size of the sexes of; courtship of. Calotes maria. Calotes nigrilabris, sexual difference in the colour of. Cambridge, O. Pickard, on the sexes of spiders; on the size of male Nephila. Camel, canine teeth of male.
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