REPTILES. 85 



CHAPTER IV. 



The Reptiles and Fishes of India. 



Great Indian Tortoise— Gangetic Crocodile— Flying Dragon— Serpent 

 Tribe— Viperine Boa— Russelian Snake— Whip Snake — Cobra de Ca- 

 pello — Water Snakes— Pomfret—Scir Fish— Gymnetrus — Indian Re- 

 mora — Dolphin— Scorpaena-Insidious Dory — Zebra Sole — Chstodon 

 — Unicorn Acanthurus — Climbing Sparus — S6her — Wrahl — Leopard 

 Mackerel— Indian Surmullet— Flying Gurnard— ExocaBtus-Mango 

 Fish— OstracioD. 



The principal characteristic of reptiles in general con- 

 sists in this, that only a portion of the blooJ is transmitted 

 through the lungs, the remainder being projected by the 

 heart directly to the other parts of the body, without being 

 specially subjected to the influence of the respiratory or- 

 gans ; whereas in the higher classes, such as man, the rest 

 of the mammalia, and birds, t!ic whole of the blood must pass 

 by the lungs before it is transmitted to the more distant 

 parts of the circulating sj'stem. The amphibious habits of 

 such reptiles as are unprovided with gills result in a great 

 measure from the power which they thus enjoy of carrying 

 on a partial circulation of the blood independent of respi- 

 ration. The respiration of animals, or the process by 

 which the blood is oxygenated, becomes weaker and less 

 frequent in proportion to the diminution which takes 

 place in the quantity of blood transmitted to the lungs, 

 compared with that which passes directly from the heart ; 

 and as it is respiration which warms the blood, and pro- 

 duces in the fibres their susceptibility of nervous irritation, 

 it follows, as observed by Cuvier,* that the blood of reptiles 

 is cold, and their muscular strength much less than that of 

 birds or quadrupeds. The seat of their sensations is also 

 much less centralized than in the last-named classes ; and 

 hence many of them exhibit life and motion long after their 

 heads have been severed from their bodies. 



Of the first division, called Chelcmian reptiles, India pro- 



* BegDe Animal, vol.li. p. 1. 

 Vol. III.— H 



