NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 



163 



TRANSFORMATION OP THE FROO. 



is the most deadly of all serpents. For its bite, science has 

 thus far been powerless to find an antidote, although Dr. 

 Albert Calmette, of Lille, France, experimenting extensively 

 in this direction, has secured partially successful results. 



THE BATRACHIANS, OR AMPHIBIANS. 



Among the many wonders of Nature, none is more in- 

 teresting than those forms which serve to connect the great 

 groups of vertebrate animals, by bridging over what other- 

 wise would seem like impassable chasms. For a high ex- 

 ample, consider the duckbill, or platypus, an Australian 

 mammal about the size of the muskrat, which stands almost 

 half Way between the mammals and birds. It lays eggs, 

 and has a bill and webbed front feet, like a duck. 



Between the birds and the reptiles there is a fossil bird, 

 called the Archaeopteryx, with a long, vertebrated, lizard- 

 like tail, which is covered with feathers, and the Hesperornis> 



