EEPTILES. 273 



Bats. Most of them liad the nose elongatetl, like the snout 

 of a Crocodile, and the mouth armed with conical teeth. 

 Fingers, furnished with long hooks, gave them the means of 

 climbing trees, or hanging in the manner of the Bat and the 

 Vampire. The eyes were of enormous size, apparently as a 

 ])rovision for nocturnal flight. From the remains of insects 

 found with the bones of Pterodactyles near Oxford, some 

 confirmation of the conjecture is derived, that their food was 

 insects ; but the larger species of Pterodactyle had head and 

 teeth so much lai'ger and stronger than such prey required, 

 that they may possibly have fed on fishes, darting down upon 

 them from the air. It is probable, therefore, they possessed 

 the power of swimmuig ; and thus qualified for all services 

 and all elements, they realized Milton's description : — 



-"The fiend 



O'er hog or steep, through straight, rough, dense, or rare, 

 With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way. 

 And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies." 



Pakadise Lost, Book ii. line 947. 



Oedeb IV.— TESTUDINATA.*— toetoises. 



"And in his needy shop a Tortoise hung. 

 An Alligator stuffed, and other skins 

 Of ill-shaped fishes." — ShaivSPEARe. 



Let it not excite surprise that, in the passage just quoted, the 

 word " fishes'' should be applied to reptiles. It is still used 

 by the uneducated in speaking of warm-blooded mammalia, 

 which, Hke the Whale, live in the sea. And let us not look 

 with scorn upon those fallacies ; for ever, as our owni know- 

 ledge increases, we should become more sensible of its limited 

 extent, and more indulgent towards the errors of others. 

 Tortoises are distinguished from all other reptiles by having 



* Latin Tcstudo, a. ToTtokc. The Greek cAe/ys signifies a Water Tortoise; 

 the term cktlonian reptiles, which is hence derived, is applied both to land 

 and to water species. 



