REPTILE. 



563 



the table, the story does not inform us, and the 

 point is of too grave and deep a nature for our 

 philosophy. 



The classification of reptiles need not occupy 

 us long-. The four orders of Chelonia, Sattria, Op/ii- 

 dia, and Batrachia, into which it is usually divided, 

 are tolerably well defined in their general characters, 

 though the OpJtidia certainly break the gradation, 

 which is tolerably regular in the other three. 



Of Chelonia there are two sub-orders, Testudina 

 and Chelonia. The first of these is very numerous 

 both in species and in individuals, and they are much 

 more widely distributed over the surface of the globe. 

 They inhabit the land and the fresh water, both in 

 rivers and lakes ; but there are none of them in the 

 sea. They are the animals which are properly called 

 tortoises. 



There are usually reckoned four distinct genera of 

 Testudina. \.Testudo. With the shield hemispheri- 

 cal, solid, and covered with plates nearly of the 

 consistence of horn, but not fibrous. The feet club- 

 shaped, with five toes on the fore-feet, and four on the 

 hind ones ; the latter blunt, and all the toes fitted for 

 digging. They are all inhabitants of the land ; they 

 inhabit chiefly the warmer parts of the world. There 

 are about twenty known species, which are formed 

 into several sub-sections, on account of differences 

 in the form of the shield and breastplate. 2. Emys. 

 With five sharp claws on all the feet, and the toes 

 webbed, so as to fit them for swimming. The shell 

 hard, the head retractile, and the last plates of the 

 shield capable of shutting down upon the posterior 

 margin of the breastplate. There are at least forty 

 different species of them, inhabiting the water or its 

 margins, and burrowing in the mud in the season of 

 dormancy. They are called rnud-tortoises, and some 

 of them box-tortoises, from the power they have of 

 closing the shells against each other anteriorly, poste- 

 riorly, or both. 3. Chelys. The shield cased with 

 horny plates, the toes webbed and five or four in 

 number, and the neck contractile. There are about 

 fifteen species, some of them inhabiting the southern 

 parts of the eastern continent, especially Africa and 

 New Holland, and the others the tropical parts of Ame- 

 rica. 4. Trionys. The feet pectinated, and in general 

 only with three toes armed with sharp claws. The 

 shell with a membranous covering, ending in a flex- 

 ible edge. Found in the fresh waters, chiefly those of 

 tropical or warm latitudes. The known species are 

 abont ten in number. Some of the animals of this 

 sub-order have shells useful for various purposes 

 in the arts, and the animals themselves ars occasion- 

 ally kept as curiosities ; but they are of compara- 

 tively little value. Some of them are animals of very 

 fierce and predatory dispositions. 



The Chelonia properly so called are more interest- 

 ing and more useful animals, though the species are 

 fewer in number. They are all inhabitants of the 

 sea, and the flesh of some and the shells of others 

 are of considerable value. For a notice of them, and 

 some hints respecting the former sub-order, see the 

 article CHELONIA in this work. 



The order Sauna are still more numerous, and 

 some of them are animals of considerable interest, 

 though more on account of their strength and ferocity 

 than of their value to man, which is very limited. 

 There are five families of them crocodiles, lizards, 

 iguanas, geckos, camelions, and scinks. The croco- 

 diles are chiefly inhabitants of the water, especially j 



of the larger rivers, and they are found only in the 

 warm latitudes. They are the most formidable of all 

 the saurian reptiles, though their power is in the 

 water, rather than upon the land. All the rest are 

 slurred over, in ordinary language, under the common 

 name of lizards, which, however, ought to be restricted 

 to a few only out of the number. They are land 

 animals, and some of them are tree animals, climbing 

 and jumping about with much ability. The flesh of 

 some of the species is much esteemed as food ; and 

 some of the smaller ones are of a little use in clearing 

 habitations from insects. Altogether they are an 

 inoffensive race ; but many of them are hideous in 

 their forms, and furnished with crests and datable or 

 inflatable membranes, which add to their rude and 

 coarse appearance. 



The OPHIDIA, which literally means serpent- 

 shaped reptiles, have been noticed apart from the 

 others in a previous part of this article. There are, 

 strictly speaking, only two families of them ; but one 

 of the families admits of considerable subdivision, be- 

 sides the genera of which the several sections of it 

 are composed. Snakes and true serpents are the 

 grand divisions or families. The genera of which 

 their family is composed are not very numerous, and 

 they are all harmless in their dispositions, though 

 some of them are guilty of plundering the nests of 

 birds, and doing other depredations in wild nature. 

 The true serpents consist of many more genera than 

 the snakes, and there are many more varieties 

 among them. Some have the power of going at 

 nearly the same speed with either end foremost; 

 some simply swallow their prey, and others crush it 

 to death in their folds, while there are a very few 

 that are said to live chiefly upon succulent matter, 

 and they are the only animals in the order that do 

 so. Others again are armed with poison -fangs, though 

 they form the minority of the section of true serpents 

 in species, and are not proportionally so numerous 

 in individuals as those which have no poisoning ap- 

 paratus. Of the poisonous ones, some have no teeth 

 in the upper jaw-bones properly so called, except the 

 poison-fangs ; but they have these fangs more com- 

 pletely developed than the others ; they have also 

 all the -parts and workings of the poisoning apparatus 

 more complete ; and, in as far as the infusing of 

 venom into the punctured wounds made by the fangs 

 is concerned, they are the most destructive and deadly 

 of all the serpent race. Their fangs are so formed 

 that the covering of very few animals is proof against 

 their puncture ; but fortunately for the rest of the 

 living world, they are animals of very retired habits, 

 and seldom make an attack unless they are alarmed. 

 The rattlesnake and the viper may be considered as 

 the two typical forms of them ; but under the type of 

 the viper there are many varieties, some of the small 

 ones of which are highly dangerous, especially in the 

 warm countries where vegetable and animal poisons 

 of all kinds are the most deadly. The poisonous 

 serpents which have other teeth in the upper maxil- 

 lary bones, besides the poison-fangs, though not per- 

 haps quite so deadly in their venom as those which 

 have the fangs only, are perhaps more dangerous, 

 because, from there being several teeth on the same 

 part of the jaw with the fangs, which move along 

 with that in the same manner as the fangs do, one is 

 in danger of not supposing that they are poisonous. 

 All the teeth which are on this part of the jaw are 

 understood to partake of the nature of fangs, and to 

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