Clifton College Scientific Society. 101 



ordinary, and such as if now living would appear most at 

 variance with any animal now endowed with life. For these 

 ancient flying dragons did not sustain themselves in the air 

 b)^ means of their ribs (as the Draco volans of India does at 

 the present day), nor by a wing like that of a bird, nor like 

 that of a bat, but by a membrane upheld principally on a 

 very elongated ' little ' finger, whilst the other fingers pre- 

 served their ordinary dimensions and their claws. Well may 

 Cuvier declare that to those who had not followed out the 

 details of its structure, a representation of the animal as it 

 formerly breathed and moved, would appear more like the 

 ofispring of a disordered imagination than of the ordinary 

 powers of nature. 



We often see ' dragons ' represented with wings, not like 

 those of birds, but resembling bats. Among the kinds of 

 serpents mentioned in Scripture are those fiery fiying ser- 

 pents that made so great a destruction among the Israelites, 

 and were the death of so many people in the desert. The 

 Hebrew word here used for serpents is saraph, which pro- 

 perly signifies to burn ; and it is thought that this name was 

 given to them either because of their colour, or because of 

 the heat and thirst they created by their bitings. Herodotus, 

 who says that he had seen these serpents, tells us they had 

 great resemblance to those animals called by both the Greeks 

 and Latins hydrce, the destruction of which constituted one 

 of the labours of Hercules. The same old writer informs us 

 that he went on purpose to the city of Butus to see those 

 flying serpents of which he had often previously heard. He 

 found near this city great heaps of bones, and the spines of 

 those animals that had been killed and devoured by the Ibis. 

 ' The place,' says he, ' is a narrow neck of ground tlaat widens 

 towards Egypt. When, therefore, at the beginning of spring, 

 these serpents come out of Arabia into Egypt, the Ibis 

 attacks them, and destroys great numbers of them.' The 

 wings of these serpents, he says, are membranes like those of 

 bats. He also adds, that they are not of large size, and that 

 they are speckled or of several colours, and are found in such 

 large quantities in Arabia, that the inhabitants could not 

 exist by reason of their ravages, if Providence had allowed 

 them to multiply according to the usual laws of nature. The 

 female, however, says he, puts the male to death ; the young 

 ones kill their mother, and thus their numbers became 

 greatly restricted. It is not unlikely that some of the fabu- 

 lous accounts about the dragon may have been based upon 

 the curious little animal called the Flying Dragon {Draco 



