Chameleon and crow, with a stone in swirling water
Bestiary entries below a diagram of water eddying past a triangular stone
The lower half carries inverted mirror script with bestiary entries: the chameleon takes the color of whatever it settles on and is devoured with the leaves by elephants, while the crow purges itself with laurel after killing a chameleon, followed by a bare heading for stags. Above the text a pen drawing shows a triangular stone set in the current, ringed by concentric eddies of water. Loose red-chalk lines below the diagram, tentatively read as a dog, accompany the studies.
On this page
The color-changing chameleon and the crow
The chameleon always takes the color of the thing it settles on and so, with the fronds it clings to, is often eaten by elephants. The crow, having killed a chameleon, purges itself with laurel. A heading for stags begins but is left without text.
Triangular stone struck by the current
A wedge-shaped stone sits in flowing water, encircled by concentric rings that trace the eddies swirling around and behind it. The sketch studies how a current is deflected by an obstacle set in its path.
Faint red-chalk animal figure
Loose, flowing red-chalk lines run beneath the water diagram; the holding catalogue reads them tentatively as the figure of a dog together with other marks. They are faint and cursory rather than a finished study.