Procccdhuja, jg 



run over by carts and undergoing various similar accidents 

 without mjury. Here is a rather mutilated specimen of the 

 skeleton of the Common Tortoise. Now, all the upper parts 

 ot this strong roof, or carapace, as it is called, are actually 

 parts of the spmal-column and the ribs. Those plates which 

 orm the border and those forming the large plate under the 

 body, known as the plastron, are formed in the skin. So you 

 see, this bony covering, which you must not confound with 

 tlie Tortoise-shell, is a very complicated affair. In the 

 lortoise class there are no teeth, the immensely-strong jaws 

 being sheathed in a horny covering. Some of the Tortoises 

 wbich inhabit fresh-water in hot countries have a soft skin in 

 place of the bony case, and their limbs, which in the land- 

 Tortoises have feet with five digits, are flattened to serve as 

 hns. Other kmds inhabit marshes ; and others, which you 

 know as Turtles, live in the sea. 



The next group of Eeptiles is known as the Plesiosaurs. 

 and these happily are, and have been for probably many 

 milhons of years, extinct. We find their skeletons in the 

 c ays and limestones at Whitby, and Lyme Eegis, in Dorset- 

 shire ; and we can tell from their characters that they were 

 the veritable dragons of the ocean. Ther most curious 

 feature was their neck, so long and phant as to resemble that 

 ot a swan, and it has been suggested that they lurked in 

 shallow water with only their small head above the surface 

 and watched for their prey, darting out to seize it when 

 within sight, propelled by their powerful paddles. These 

 paddles had a most curious skeleton to support them, con- 

 sisting of an immense number of small bones embedded in 

 gmtle which would render them very pliable, and form 

 altogether a most excellent organ of locomotion in the water, 

 ihe next order is that of the Lizards, distinguished by 

 Uieir active habits, as anyone who has watched our little 

 English Lizard knows. A great many of the Lizards are 

 most interesting, among which I may mention the Geckos 

 for instance, which inhabit hot countries, and are able to run 

 quickly across a ceiling or wall. This they do, holding partly 

 by their sharp claws, and partly by means of the little suckers 



c ii 



