12 REPTILIA. 



and is devoured in turn by the old ones. Its flesh is highly 

 esteemed.(l) 



ORDER II. 



SAURIA.(2) 



The Saurians have a heart like that of the Chelonise, com- 

 posed of two auricles and a ventricle, sometimes divided by 

 imperfect partitions. 



Their ribs are movable, partly connected with the ster- 

 num, and rise and fall in respiration. 



Their lung extends more or less towards the posterior ex- 

 tremity of the body ; it frequently penetrates very far into 

 the lower part of the abdomen, whose transverse muscles pass 

 under the ribs, and even towards the neck, to clasp it. Those 

 in which this organ is very large, possess the singular faculty 

 of changing the colours of their skin according to the excite- 

 ment produced in them by their wants or passions. 



Their eggs are enveloped by a covering more or less hard, 

 and the young always retain the form in which they quit 

 them. 



Their mouth is always armed with teeth, and their toes, 

 with very few exceptions, are furnished with nails ; their skin 

 is covered with scales, more or less compact, or at least with 

 scaly granules. They all have a tail more or less long, and 

 generally very thick at base : most of them have four legs, a 

 few only having but two. 



(1) Add Trionyxjavanicus, Geoff. Ann. du Mus. XIV; TV. carinatus. Id.; Tr. 

 stellatus,U.;Tr. euphraticus, Olivier, Voy. en Turquie, Sec. pi. xlii; Tr. gan- 

 geticus, Duvaucel; Tr. granosus. Leach, or Test, granosa, Schoepf. xxx, 

 A and B. 



N.B. The Tortue de Bartram, Voy. Am. Sept. tr. fr. I, pi. 2, appears to me to 

 be the T. ferox, to which, throutfh a mistake, two nails too many have been added 

 to each foot. 



(2) From s-aw^oc, (Lizard) animals analogous to Lizards. 



