CHAEACTERISTICS OF EEPTILES. 15 



their food with equal deliberation. With the exception of the 

 Land Tortoises, whose regimen is herbivorous, most reptiles feed on 

 living prey. Some, such as Lizards, Frogs, and Toads, prey on 

 worms, insects, small terrestrial or aquatic Molluscs ; others, such 

 as Ophidians and Crocodiles, attack Birds, and even Mammalia. 

 Large Serpents, owing to the distensibility of their oesophagus, 

 swallow animals much larger than themselves. The Boa-con- 

 strictor darts upon the Deer, binds him in its snaky coils, breaks 

 his bones, and little by little swallows him entirely. 



Beptiles, whether Batrachians, Ophidians, or Chelonians, are 

 mostly oviparous, sometimes ow-viviparous, and some of them 

 are very prolific. The eggs of some are covered with a cal- 

 careous envelope, as in the Turtle. Sometimes they are soft, 

 and analogous to the spawn of fish, as in the Batrachians. 

 They do not hatch their eggs by sitting upon them, but bury them 

 in the sand, and take no further care of them, trusting to the heat 

 of the sun, which hatches them in due course. To this the 

 Pythons form a partial exception. Batrachians content them- 

 selves with diffusing their spawn or eggs in the marshy waters 

 or ponds, or they bear them on their backs until the time 

 of hatching approaches. On leaving the Qg^ the young Tor- 

 toises have to provide immediately for their own wants, for 

 the parents are not present to bring them their nourishment or 

 to defend them against their enemies. This parental protection, 

 so manifest among the superior animals, does not exist in ovi- 

 parous species ; that is, in those whose eggs are not hatched in 

 the body of the mother. The young are, so to speak, produced 

 in a living state, and fully prepared for the battle of life. The 

 loves of these animals present none of that character of mutual 

 affection and tender sympathy which distinguishes the Mammalia 

 and Birds.* When they have ensured the perpetuity of their 

 species, they separate, and betake themselves again to their 

 solitary existence. 



Some reptiles attain dimensions truly extraordinary, which 

 render them at times very formidable. Turtles are met with 

 which weigh as much as sixteen hundred pounds, and the carapace 



* Birds, however, are oviparous, and nevertheless manifest the strongest parental 

 affection.^ED. 



