392 



HISTORY OF FROGS, LIZARDS, AND SERPENTS. 



But their greatest distinction arises from 

 the manner of bringing forth their young. 

 First, some of them are viviparous. Secondly, 

 some are oviparous ; and which may be con- 

 sidered in three distinct ways. Thirdly, some 

 bring forth small spawn, like fishes. The 

 crocodile, the iguana, and all the larger kinds, 

 bring forth eggs, which are hatched by the 

 heat of the sun ; the animals that issue from 

 them are complete upon leaving the shell ; 

 and their first efforts are to run to seek food 

 in their proper element. The viviparous 

 kinds, in which are all the salamanders, come 

 forth alive from the body of the female, per- 

 fect and active, and suffer no succeeding 

 change. But those which are bred in the 

 water, and as we have reason to think, from 

 spawn, suffer a very considerable change in 

 their form. They are produced with an ex- 

 ternal skin or covering that sometimes incloses 

 their feet, and gives them a serpentine appear, 

 ance. To this false skin fins are added, above 

 and below the tail, that serve the animal for 

 swimming ; but when the false skin drops off, 

 these drop off also ; and then the lizard, with 

 its four feet, is completely formed, and forsakes 

 the water. 



From hence it appears, that, of this tribe, 

 there are three distinct kinds, differently pro- 

 duced, and, most probably, very different in 

 their formation. But the history of these ani- 

 mals is very obscure ; and we are, as yet, 

 incapable of laying the line that separates 

 them. All we know, as was said before, is, 

 that the great animals of this kind are mostly 

 produced perfect from the egg ; the salaman- 

 ders are generally viviparous ; and some of the 

 water lizards imperfectly produced. In all 

 these most unfinished productions of Nature, 

 if I may so call them, the varieties in their 

 structure increase in proportion to their imper- 

 fections. A poet would say, that Nature 

 grew tired of the nauseous formation, and left 

 accident to finish the rest of her handy-work. 



However, the three kinds have many points 

 of similitude ; and, in all their varieties of 

 figure, colour, and production, this tribe is 

 easily distinguished, and strongly marked. 

 They have all four short legs ; the two fore- 

 feet, somewhat resembling a man's hand and 

 arm. They have tails almost as thick as the 

 body at the beginning, and that generally run 

 tapering to a point. They are all amphibious 

 also ; equally capable of living upon land and 

 water; and formed, internally, in the same 

 manner with the tortoise, and other animals, 

 that can continue a long time without respira- 

 tion : in other words, their lungs are not so 



son, and except the crocodile and alligator, quite inof- 

 fensive to mankind. Those that are bred in waters un- 

 dergo a metamorphosis, and pass through a tadpole 

 form. 



necessary to continue life and circulation, bill 

 that their play may be stopped for some con. 

 siderable time, while the blood performs its 

 circuit round the body by a shorter communi- 

 cation. 



These are differences that sufficiently sepa- 

 rate lizards from all other animals ; but it 

 will be very difficult to fix the limits that dis- 

 tinguish the three kinds from each other. 

 The crocodile tribe, and its affinities, are suf- 

 ficiently distinguished from all the rest by 

 :heir size and fierceness ; the salamander tribe 

 is distinguished by their deformity, their frog- 

 like heads, the shortness of their snouts, their 

 swollen bellies, and their viviparous produc- 

 ion. With regard to the rest, which we 

 may denominate the cameleon or lizard kind, 

 some of which bring forth from the egg, some 

 of which are imperfectly formed from spawn, 

 we must group them under one head, and 

 leave time to unravel the rest of their history. 



CHAP. II. 



OF THE CROCODILE, AND ITS AFFINITIES * 



THE Crocodile is an animal placed at a 

 happy distance from the inhabitants of Eu- 

 rope, and formidable only in those regions 

 where men are scarce, and arts are but little 

 known. In all the cultivated and populous 



1 Crocodiles and Alligators. The true crocodile is 

 found in the river Nile, but by no means in such plenty 

 as in the times of the Pharaohs. The species which is 

 domesticated by the priests, and magnificently provided 

 for in a temple in Memphis, was of a green colour. It 

 was an object of profound worship, called a God, and em- 

 balmed when it died. On the other hand, the alligator 

 is exclusively found in America ; and instead of having 

 an uninterrupted series of teeth round both jaws, as in 

 the crocodile, the fourth tooth of the under jaw shuts into 

 a corresponding socket in the upper one. This law is 

 so universal, that any person by remembering this fact,- 

 may with certainty designate the one from the other. 



The term alligator is applied to the various species of 

 crocodiles that are found in America, while the name 

 Gavial has been given to such as inhabit the East Indies 

 and the islands of the Indian ocean, and the original 

 word is more especially used when speaking of that 

 species which abounds in the Nile. In the central parts 

 of Africa, the crocodiles attain a very large size, in many 

 instances being found as much as thirty feet in length. 



The crocodile swallows its prey whole, and feeds in- 

 differently on fish or small quadrupeds ; and the upper 

 teeth, instead of resting with their points upon the under 

 when the mouth is closed, enter between them, and thus 

 prevent all chance of escape. It but rarely attacks man- 

 kind. On either side of the under part of the lower 

 jaw, a small opening is found, from which the creature 

 can force, at will, a liquid possessing the smell of musk. 

 This property has been lately noticed by Mr Thomas 

 Bell, in a paper inserted in the Transactions of the 

 Royal Society of London, and, in his opinion, the rep- 

 tile employs it for the purpose of attracting fish into the 

 places it haunts. 



