34 LECTURE Vll. 



ported by internal ribs, and by the help of which 

 it flies or flutters. It is a perfectly innocent animal, 

 and is found in many parts of Asia and Africa. Its 

 natural colour is a fine blueish grey, with darker 

 variegations, and the wings are elegantly spotted 

 towards their edges with black and white varie- 

 gations. The animal is the Draco volans of Lin- 

 naeus. Another species has been described by 

 some, differing from the present in having the 

 fore-legs joined to the upper part of the wings. 



I shall proceed to take a very short survey of 

 the Serpent tribe, constituting the last order of 

 the Linnsean amphibia. The Serpents, in a ge- 

 neral view, are readily distinguished from the rest 

 by their total want of feet ; moving by the assist- 

 ance of their scales, and their general powers of 

 contorsion. In the serpents the distinction of 

 the species is often very difficult, the animals often 

 varying greatly in colours according to the dif- 

 ferent stages of their growth. Linnseus imagined 

 that he had discovered an infallible method of as- 

 certaining the species, viz. from the number of 

 scaly plates on the lower parts of the animal in 

 the different genera; but experience has suffi- 

 ciently proved this method to be erroneous, and 



