TORPIDITY OF REPTILES. 135 



but it will make a reptile torpid, and the animal 

 m;iy remain in this condition for a great length 

 of time.* 



It does not appear that the marine tortoises 

 or turtles retire to hybernate ; they tenant a 

 medium, the temperature of which is generally 

 uniform, and they have the means of migration. 

 They traverse leagues of ocean, in order to 

 resort to their favourite breeding places, and 

 afterwards revisit the expanse of the sea to 

 enjoy existence. Among the amphibia, the 

 Amphiuma of Georgia, Carolina, Florida, etc., 

 generally buries itself in the mud of the swamp 

 or marsh in which it habitually resides. With 

 respect to the Proteus of the subterranean lakes 

 of Carniola, nothing is known. Here, also, we 

 may refer to those singular animals, the Lcpi- 

 dosirens, of which one species is a native of the 

 Amazon, in South America, (L. Paradoxa;) 

 a second, (L. Amiectans,) of the river Gambia, 

 and which seem to link the amphibia and fishes 

 together. Of these, the latter, from Africa, 

 appears at a certain season of the year to 

 become torpid, burying itself in the mud.f 

 From what we can glean respecting the 

 Gambia Lepidosiren, it appears to bury itself 



* Spallanzani kept frogs, newts, and snakes, in a torpid 

 State in an ice-house, where they remained for three years and 

 r half, and readily revived when again exposed to the influ- 

 ence of a warm atmosphere. No hybernating quadruped 

 could have been so kept ; it would have awakened and died. 

 So far there is a difference between the torpidity of reptiles 

 and the hybernation of quadrupeds. 



t We refer our reader for details to "A Popular History 

 of Reptiles," published by the Religious Tract Society. 



