A species of lizard which has the faculty of changing the colour of its skin. It is ranked among the unclean animals in Lev. 11:30, where the Hebrew word so translated is coah (R.V., “land crocodile”). In the same verse the Hebrew tanshemeth, rendered in Authorized Version “mole,” is in Revised Version “chameleon,” which is the correct rendering. This animal is very common in Egypt and in the Holy Land, especially in the Jordan valley.

a species of lizard. The reference in (Leviticus 11:30) is to some kind of an unclean animal, supposed to be the lizard, known by the name of the “monitor of the Nile,” a large, strong reptile common in Egypt and other parts of Africa.