THE REPTILES AND AMPHIBIA OF BRITAIN, &C. 105 



ment and nomenclature of the animals which constitute the subjects 

 of my list. Reforms in science, like those in the constitution and 

 government of empires, can only be efficient and salutary when 

 emanating from an enlightened and profoundly experienced spirit, 

 and conducted with an extraordinarily cautious and temperate hand. 

 The writer, to whom I have just adverted, has, both in his Cata- 

 logue of British Birds and Mammalia, advanced many steps which 

 he will find it, after all, necessary to retrace ; and neglected almost 

 as many others which might have been taken with equal safety and 

 advantage. Much more knowledge, again, has been acquired, re- 

 specting the first two than the three inferior Classes of Vertebrated 

 Animals, in their distinctive characters and habits. Influenced by 

 these various considerations, and warned by the failure of my pre- 

 decessors in the difficult path of zoological reform, I shall content 

 myself with following the track marked out by Jenyns and Yarrell; 

 and reserve, for a season of greater leisure and more deliberate 

 reflection, the exposition of my views upon the subject of a reform 

 of the nomenclature of British Fishes. 



CLASS III.— REPTILES. 

 Order I. — Chelonian. 



Turtle Family, — (Cheloniad^:). 

 Turtle, (Sphargis, Merr.) 

 Coriaceous Turtle Sphargis coriacea (Gray). 



Turtle, (Chelonia, Brongn.) 

 Imbricated Turtle Chelonia imbricata (Gray). 



Order II. — Saurian. 



Lizard Family, — (Lacertidje). 

 Lizard, (Lacerta, Cuv.) 

 Sand Lizard JLacerta stirpium (Daud^) 



Common Lizard Lacerta agilis (Berkenh.) 



Green Lizard Lacerta viridis (Daud.) 



Order III. — Ophidian. 



Blind-worm Family,^-(Anguidje). 

 Blind-worm, (Anguis, Cuv. ) 

 Blind-worm Anguis fragilis (Linn.) 



VOL. V. — NO. XVII. O 



