150 OVIPAROUS QUADRUf^EDS. 



a very confiderablc change in their form. They are produced with art 

 external fkin or covering, that fometimes inclofcs their feet, and gives 

 them a Terpentine appearance : to this falfe fkin fins are added, above 

 and below the tail, that ferve the animal for fwimming j but when the 

 falfe fkin drops off, thefe drop alfoj and then the lizard, with its four feet, 

 is completely formed, and forfakes the water. 



They may be diflinguifhed into the larger kind, or crocodiles, Sec, 

 with flatted tails j the guanos, which have fpines on their backs i the 

 green or common lizard kind, whofe tails are round, and their bellies fcaly ; 

 then thofe which have fcaly feet j thofe which have only three fingers • 

 and thofe with wings; after which, thofe properly known by the name of 

 Salamanders, 



All have many points of fimilitude, in figure and colour j' the 

 whole tribe is eafily diftinguiHied, and flrongly marked. All have four 

 Ihort legs j tails almoft as thick as the body at the beginning, and gene- 

 rally tapering. All are amphibious; and formed internally like the tor- 

 toife, &c. 



THE CROCODILE. 



TRUE crocodiles have five fingers to their front feet , four to the hind 

 foot, which is membraned, and nails only to the three interior toes 

 of each foot. They have four glands, which furnifh a flrong mufky fmell. 

 To view this animal in all its terrors, of an enormous fize, in fur- 

 prifing numbers, and committing unceafing devaftations, we muft ex- 

 plore the uninhabited regions of Africa and America, the banks of thofe 

 immenfe rivers that roll through extenfive waftes, the midfl of marfhy 

 lakes, and drowned favannas, and among the banian trees of their 

 fides; where arts have never penetrated, where force only makes diflinc- 

 tion, and the moft powerful exert their ftrength with moft confidence and 

 fecurity. In the river Amazons, or the river Niger, they are found 

 in hundreds, from eighteen to twenty-feven feet long, lying as clofe as a 

 raft of timber upon one of our ftreams. They are here covered with mud i 

 they indolently bafk on the furface, undifturbed at the approach of an 

 enemy, fince, from repeated trials of their flrength, they find none be- 

 yond their power to fubdue. 



