CHAPTER XY 



sense-organs, eggs, hatching, care of young, geol- 

 ogy and modern reptiles, kinships, varieties 

 of fossil forms, diagram of kinship, comments 

 on types or orders of extinct reptiles, and key 



Sense- Organs 



All the senses are closely related primarily with 

 the skin and may be taken up next in order. Except 

 that of Taste, the senses of the Reptiles are quite 

 keen. Even where such a tonijjue as that in the 

 tortoise-forms prevails along with the habit of chew- 

 ing the food, taste may be considerable. But in such 

 reptiles as serpents, which gulp their food, there can 

 be little enjoyment of it except that of fulness and a 

 sense of good digestion. 



Serpents and many lizards use the tongue as a 

 feeling organ. Besides this, the reptiles are not 

 largely endowed with organs of Touch. The tor- 

 toise-forms, however, know at once when their shells 

 are touched never so slightly, and scales may be 

 equally sensitive. One turtle — the Matamata — has 

 a long fleshy snout, and above and below the neck 

 there are a series of filaments, but it is likely that 

 these latter are made to resemble seaweed, and are 

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