THE SALAMANDER. 



399 



heat of the sun ; and at the end of thirty days, 

 the young ones begin to break open the shell. 

 At this time the female is instinctively taught 

 that her young ones want relief; and she 

 goes upon land to scratch away (he sand, and 

 set them free. Her brood quickly avail them- 

 selves of their liberty : a part run unguided 

 to the water; another part ascend the back 

 of the female, and are carried thither in 

 greater safely. But the moment they arrive 

 at the water, all natural connection is at an 

 end ; when the female has introduced her 

 young to their natural element, not only 

 she, but the male, become among Ihe number 

 of their most formidable enemies, and devour 

 as many of them as they can. The whole 

 brood scatters into different parts of the bot- 

 tom ; by far the greatest number is destroyed, 

 and the rest find safety in their agility or min- 

 uteness. 



But it is not the crocodile alone that is thus 

 found to thin their numbers ; the eggs of this 

 animal are not only a delicious feast to the sa- 

 vage, but are eagerly sought after by every 

 beast and bird of prey. The ichneumon was 

 erected into a deity among the ancients for its 

 success in destroying the eggs of these mon- 

 sters : at present that species of the vulture 

 called the Gallinazo is their most prevailing 

 enemy. All along the banks of great rivers, 

 for thousands of miles, the crocodile is seen to 

 propagate in numbers that would soon overrun 

 the earth, but for the vulture, that seems ap- 

 pointed by Providence to abridge its fecun- 

 dity. These birds are ever found in greatest 

 numbers where the crocodile is most numer- 

 ous : and hiding themselves within the thick 

 branches of the trees that shade the banks of 

 the river, they watch the female in silence, 

 and permit her to lay all her eggs without in- 

 terruption. Then when she has retired, they 

 encourage each other with cries to the spoil ; 

 and flocking all together upon the hidden trea- 

 sure, tear up the eggs, and devour them in a 

 much quicker time than they were deposited. 

 Nor are they less diligent in attending the fe- 

 male while she is carrying her young to the 

 water ; for if any one of them happens to drop 

 by the way, it is sure to receive no mercy. 



Such is the extraordinary account given us 

 by late travellers of the propagation of this 

 animal ; an account adopted by Linnaeus and 

 the most learned naturalists of the age. 1 Yet, 

 if one might argue from the general analogy 

 of nature, the crocodile's devouring her own 

 young when she gets to the water seems 

 doubtful. This may be a story raised from 

 the general idea of this animal's rapacious 

 cruelty ; when, in fact, the crocodile only 

 seems more cruel than other animals, because 



* Ulioa. 



it has more power to do mischief. It is pro- 

 bable that it is not more divested of parental 

 tenderness than other creatures, and I am the 

 more led to think so from the peculiar forma- 

 tion of one of Ihe crocodile kind. This is 

 called the Open-Bellied Crocodile, and is fur- 

 nished with a false belly like the oppossum, 

 where the young creep out and in, as their 

 dangers or necessities require. The crocodile 

 thus furnished at least cannot be said to be an 

 enemy to her own young, since she thus gives 

 them more than parental protection. It is 

 probable, also, that this open-bellied crocodile 

 is viviparous, and fosters her young that are 

 prematurely excluded in this second womb, 

 until they come to proper maturity. 2 



How long the crocodile lives we are not 

 certainly informed : if we may believe Aris- 

 totle, it lives the age of a man : but the an- 

 cients so much amused themselves in invent- 

 ing fables concerning this animal, that even 

 truth from them is suspicious. What we 

 know for certain from the ancients is, that 

 among the various animals that were produced 

 to fight in the amphitheatre at Rome, the com- 

 bat of the crocodile was not wanting. 3 Mar- 

 cus Scarus produced them living in his unri- 

 valled exhibitions ; and the Romans considered 

 him as their best citizen, because he furnished 

 them with the most expensive entertainments. 

 But entertainment at that corrupt time was 

 their only occupation. 



CHAP. III. 



OF THE SALAMANDER. 4 



THE ancients have described a lizard that is 

 bred from heat, that lives in the flames, and 



2 None of the lizard tribe have any thing like an ab- 

 dominal pouch for the safety of their young. 



3 Plin. lib. viii. c. 26. 



4 The Salamander. The Salamander belongs to that 

 order of reptiles called Batrachians, from their resem- 

 blance, to a certain extent, to the frog tribes. The Ba. 

 trachia include all the reptiles with naked bodies, with- 

 out the hard covering of the tortoises, or scales like ser- 

 pents. The whole of this order are without nails on the 

 toes, and they all undergo various changes or metamor- 

 phoses; the different changes in the organization of the 

 salamanders nearly resemble those which occur in the 

 case of the frogs and toads. 



The body of the salamander is covered with pores, 

 from which, when alarmed, or suffering from pain, an 

 acrid watery humour exudes, which is at times able so 

 far to quench the fury of the flames as to give the poor 

 creature time to escape, and in this simple fact consists 

 the whole of the mysterious power that has betn attri- 

 buted to it. 



The salamanders are divided into two sections, the 

 aquatic, that rarely leave the water, (our common eft is 

 an example,) and the terrestrial, who only remain in 

 that element during their tadpole state. The aquatic 



