i7» BIPED REPITLES. 



impregnated in the ufual way, the male gathers them up, and places them 

 on the back of the female, where they adhere : the fkinof her back fwells 

 and forms around them little cells, where they are hatched. At firft, 

 they have a tail like tadpoles, which foon quits them. 



The HORNED TOAD is frightful ; his head half the fize of his 

 body ; his jaws open enormouQy ; his eye-lids have the form of a point- 

 ed cone, which makes them fecm armed with horns, wherein are his 

 eyes. His feer have fomething the air of hands. 



BIPED REPTILES. 



WE have f«^en that the Seps and. the Chalcide approach very nearly 

 in form to the order of Serpents, by their length of body, and 

 by their extreme ihortnefs of feet. The prefent clafs of reptiles is yet 

 more ferpentiform, and unites more clofely the Lizard kind to the 

 Serpent. They follow, with propriety, the Oviparous Quadrupeds, as in 

 many refpeds allied, yet differing, by having two feet only ; and they 

 precede the Serpents, as feet are entirely wanting to thofe creatures : in 

 other refpefls they might eafily be confounded with them, by their length 

 of body, proportion of the head,- and form of the fcales. 



On this clafs of creatures little has hitherto been determinate and au- 

 thentic: that many imperfe6l quadrupeds of the feps, &c. kinds, have 

 been fiippoied bipeds is certain j on the other hand, the immature ftate 

 of fome falamanders, and others, refembles that of the fevcral fuppofed 

 bipeds J but whether there be any creature which in its larz^ardi^te equals 

 thirty-one inches in fize, as fome of thefe have been found, remains ir^ 

 ubfcuricy. 



THE FLUTED 



WAS found in Mexico by M. Velasquez ; has no hind feet; is 

 clothed with fcales, difpofed in rings; has a very fbort tail. 

 Its fcales are almoft fquare, ranged in half rings on the back, and alfo on 

 the belly, corrcfponding to each other where they meet; and here is a 

 kind of fluting, or groove, running down the animal on each fide. The 

 tail has its fcaly rings entirely round. Total length of this individual 

 nine inches. The head of this creature is rounded j the upper part covered 



witli 



