AFFECTIONS OF REPTILES. 281 



putrefaction engenders heat. One species of salamander com- 

 mits a single egg to a leaf of persicaria, protects it by carefully 

 doubling the leaf, and then proceeding to another, repeats this 

 manoeuvre till her whole stock is provided for. 



Nor are the reptiles so totally devoid of all sentiments of affec- 

 tion as is commonly supposed. The Singhalese remark that if one 

 cobra be destroyed near a house, its companion is almost Certain 

 to be discovered immediately after ; and Pliny notices the affec- 

 tion that subsists between the male and the female asp, and that 

 if one of them happen to be killed, the other seeks to avenge its 

 death. The she-alligator watches over the safety of her young 

 for a long time after their birth, and endeavours to protect them 

 from her voracious mate, who it must be confessed has but little 

 of a father's tenderness ; and the male iguana is strongly attached 

 to the female, whom he will defend with the most obstinate fury. 

 Even the ill-famed crocodile appears to be better than its repu- 

 tation instances having been quoted of its becoming tame and 

 in some degree gentle to its keeper. 



Of the memory of lizards we find a curious instance in Sir 

 E. Tennent's ( Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon.' In 

 the officers' quarters in the Fort of Colombo, a gecko had been 

 taught to come daily to the dinner-table, and always made its 

 appearance along with the dessert. The family were absent for 

 some months, during which the house underwent extensive re- 

 pairs, the roof having been raised, the walls stuccoed, and the 

 ceilings whitened. It was naturally surmised that so long a 

 suspension of its accustomed habits would have led to the dis- 

 appearance of the little lizard; but on the return of its old 

 friends, it made its entrance as usual at their first dinner the 

 instant the cloth was removed. 



Although frogs are found both at the mouths of the Mac- 

 kenzie and at the Straits of Magellan, and lizards dwell both 

 in Scotland and Kamtschatka, yet the reptiles are chiefly 

 confined to the tropics, as from their cold blood they are in- 

 capable of supporting a low temperature. 



Were they possessed of wings, there can be no doubt that our 

 northern snakes, lizards, frogs, and toads would fly to a warmer 

 climate as soon as the first cold nights of autumn cover the 

 meadows with a silvery sheet of hoarfrost ; but though deprived 

 <>f wings, these animals are taught by an admirable instinct to 



