44 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. II, 



which have an affinity to each other, considerably vary 

 in this particular ; so that a slight wound in the body 

 is sufficient to kill a panther, or leopard, while a cat 

 will recover from broken ribs and a fractured skull. 



(54.) Among lizards, the chamseleon is most re- 

 markable for the peculiar formation of its eyes, which 

 are so covered with a granulated membranaceous skin 

 over the eye-ball, that only a narrow horizontal slit, 

 (f through which the bright pupil, as if bordered with 

 burnished gold, is seen." The structure of the eyes, 

 also, is such, that the creature can look at the same 

 moment in different directions, one moving while the 

 other is at rest, or looking towards one, while its fellow 

 is gazing in an exactly opposite quarter. A similar 

 structure appears to exist in some few other genera of 

 reptiles, as in Lyriocephalus, or the lyre-headed lizards, 

 and in the genus Pedalion among the fishes, where, 

 according to the observations of Guilding, the eye is 

 even more conical than in the chamaeleons. 



(.55.) The sense of hearing among snakes and lizards 

 is not only very perfect, but is much more highly 

 developed, in one sense, than in any other class of 

 animals. We allude to the well-known and remarkable 

 fondness which the serpent is known to possess for 

 music. Whether this had been discovered in the pri- 

 mitive ages of the world to belong to them in a natural 

 state, or whether the inspired writers alluded to those 

 artificial modes of teaching these reptiles to move to 

 the sound of music, still practised by the jugglers of 

 India, it would be difficult to determine. The simile 

 that has been used of the serpent " refusing to hear the 

 voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely," was, 

 probably, intended to allude to their artificial move- 

 ments, as to a circumstance familiarly known among 

 the eastern nations ; for it is not to be supposed that 

 the Psalmist would have cited an illustration, which 

 could otherwise have been only known, if at all, but to 

 very few persons. With regard to the effect of music 

 upon these reptiles, we cannot state anything from 



