78 



LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



But in the case of " The Oxe, Cow, etc." 



If your beast be bitten with a mad Dog, or anj 

 other venomous beast, you shall take Plaintain anc 

 beat it in a morter with Bolearrnoniacke, Sanguis 

 Draconis, Early meale, and the whites of Egs, anc 

 playster-wise lay it to the sore, renewing it once in 

 fourteen hours. 



Most of these simple remedies except in the 

 case of the " mad dog" were, doubtless, founc 

 efficacious in these fortunate islands, where the 

 only venomous serpent is the viper and its varie- 

 ties, and the harmless common snake throws its 

 enamelled skin among those beautiful wild flowers, 

 whose dewy blossoms bring back to the mind's 

 eye the images of the dear ones now gone to re- 

 ceive their reward in heaven, who were wont to 

 gaze lovingly with us upon those stars of the 

 earth long, long ago. 



But we must go back to our reptile-house, 

 where the murderous cobra, the deadly cerastes, 

 the fatal puff-adder,* and the lethal rattlesnakes 

 remind us of the danger that lurks in paths made 

 <lovely by all the floral prodigality of warmer 



climates. There, too, are the giant forms of the 

 'boas and pythons, which, deprived of the stiletto 

 of the smaller snakes, are recompensed with an 

 herculean power of gripe that would make the 

 ribs of an Antaeus crack like pistol-shots, as they 

 broke under the pressure of the mortal constric- 

 tion. 



Before we enter into a particular account of 

 these forms let us inquire what a reptile is. 



In common parlance the word would signify any 

 creature that creeps ; but, in the language of zoolo- 

 gists, it is used to designate those vertebrated ani- 

 mals, whether quadruped, biped, or footless, that 

 are either oviparous or ovoviviparous, breathe by 

 means of lungs for the most part, are destitute of 

 hair and feathers, and are without mammae. 



Their organization, although designed after the 



one great law which is manifested throughout the 

 vertebrata, is more variously modified than that of 

 any other class of that division of animals. If 

 we examine the mammalia we find them formed 

 after one leading type. From man to a marmoset, 

 from a lion to a cat, from an elephant to a mouse, 

 from a whale to the smallest cetacean that swims, 

 the same plan of construction is manifested. 

 Among the feathered race, from an eagle to a 

 humming-bird, from a dinornis to an apteryx, we 

 .recognize an adherence to one-settled principle of 

 conformation. It is the same with fishes. But 

 among the reptiles, a wide and extensive difference 

 in the types or principles of structure must in- 

 stantly strike the most superficial observer. A 

 tortoise and a snake are both reptiles, zoologically 

 speaking. Look at these animals alive, or ex- 

 amine their skeletons, and a glance shows you the 

 wide difference of conformation displayed in the 

 two forms. But without selecting types so obvi- 

 ously distant, we shall find similar discrepancies, 

 external and internal, in this extensive class, and 



* Clotho arietans. 



that even among the more cognate reptilians. 



Take a crocodile, an ichthyosaurus, or a plesio- 

 saurus, place it by the side of a chameleon, and 

 you will soon see, even with an unpractised eye, 

 how different their osseous systems are. The dis- 

 crepancy will be heightened if you add the skele- 

 ton of a toad or a frog to the group. 



If we descend to detail, the anomaly is still 

 greater. A tortoise is toothless ; a saurian (lizard) 

 take a crocodile, for example is well furnished 

 with implanted teeth. Both, however, are quad- 

 rupedal, both have a heart with two auricles, 

 both lay eggs with a solid calcareous shell, and 

 the young of both are hatched in the form which 

 they retain through life without undergoing any 

 metamorphosis. A serpent or ophidian is foot- 

 less, but has a multitude of well-developed arched 

 ribs. Those which are not ovoviviparous lay 

 eggs with a soft though calcareous covering, but 

 their young come into the world in the same 

 shape as that borne by their parents. A frog or 

 batrachian has no ribs, or is possessed of the rudi- 

 ments of those bones only, and has a naked skin 

 destitute of scales. The eggs are gelatinous, 

 and laid in water. When the young are first 

 hatched they differ from their parents, and ans 

 furnished with branchiae or gills, which, except in 

 the perennibranchiate batrachians Proteus, Axo 

 lotl, and Siren, for example drop off as the ani 

 mal arrives at its ultimate form. The metamor 

 jhosis of the anurous batrachians those which, 

 in their perfect state, are tailless may be ob- 

 served every spring by watching the development 

 of the eggs of the common frog, of which Swam 

 merdam counted 1400 as the production of om. 

 female. The greenish albumen of these eggsi 

 does not coagulate easily, and the yolk or vitellus 

 s absorbed by the embryo. In the first stage of 

 ts existence the tadpole, or tetard as the French 

 erm it, has a somewhat elongated body, a tail 

 compressed at the sides, and external gills. Its 

 ninute mouth is armed with small hooks or teeth, 



hich it plies vigorously upon the aquatic vegeta- 

 iles which then form its food ; and on the lower 

 ip is a small tubular process, by means of which 

 t adheres to the water-plants when taking its rest, 

 n the next stage the external gills disappear, 

 >ecoming covered by a membrane, and the tad- 

 3ole then breathes like a fish. The head, pro- 

 ided with eyes and nostrils, has no neck, but is 

 )ne with the now globular trunk, largely distended 

 iy the extensive digestive canal ; and the large 

 ail enables the animal to swim well and strongly, 

 n a short time the hind legs show themselves 

 icar the setting on of the tail, and are soon devel- 

 iped. Then the anterior feet are protruded ; and 

 as the limbs advance, the tail gradually lessens 

 and shortens, shrinking till it entirely disappears. 

 The mouth now becomes wider and loses the 

 horny, hook-like appendages, the head stands out 

 more from the body, and the eyes are furnished 

 vith lids. The belly becomes more elongated, 

 ut is diminished in proportion to the size of the 

 nimal, and the intestines lose much of their 



