UNIVERSITY 

 LIZARDS AND CROCODILES. 



"The eggs are then dropped, one by one, and ar- 

 ranged in regular layers to the number of a hundred 

 and fifty or two hundred. The whole time spent in this 

 part of the operation may be about twenty minutes. 

 She now scrapes the loose sand back over the eggs, 

 and so levels them and smoothes the surface, that 

 few persons, on seeing the spot, could imagine that 

 any thing had been done to it. This accomplished to 

 her mind, she retreats to the water with all possible 

 speed, leaving the hatching of the eggs to the heat of 

 the sand." 



36. LIZARDS AND CROCODILES. 



THE eye will readily detect the difference between 

 the two reptiles, the serpent and the lizard. As the 

 snake has a more perfect body skeleton than the toad, 

 so the lizard is more complete than the snake, and, be- 

 sides, has four limbs. The limbs are weak, and the 

 lizard shows its cousinship to the snake by touching 

 the under part of its body to the ground. 



Like snakes, lizards have been the subjects of a great 

 many notions, stories and superstitions that are entirely 

 without foundation. Many stories have been told 

 about the basilisk of South America and Mexico. It 

 was said that it possessed a deadly poison with which 

 it infected the air ; and that the glance of its eye 

 carried destruction. The fact is that the basilisk is 

 entirely harmless and inoffensive. The lizard called the 

 gila monster, of Arizona, gives poison in its bite ; but 



