LIBRARY OF NATURAL HISTORY 



VOL V 



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REPTILES 



CHAPTER I 

 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS GLASS Reptilia 



IN ORDINARY language the term Reptile is applied indifferently to such crea- 

 tures as crocodiles, tortoises, lizards, snakes, frogs, and salamanders, but by the 

 naturalist it is used in a more restricted sense, and includes only the first four 

 of these, together with a host of extinct types; while the frogs and salamanders, 

 with certain other forms, both living and extinct, on account of important struc- 

 tural differences, constitute a class by themselves, known as the Amphibians, and 

 bearing the same rank as the class of Reptiles. To an ordinary observer there 

 would seem but little in common between a scaled lizard or snake, a cuirassed 



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