92 iv. I, 



BOOK IV. 



(Ch. \.) The account which has now been given of the viscera,* 

 the stomach, and. the other several parts of the vivipara, holds 

 equally good for the oviparous quadrupeds, and also for such 

 apodous animals as the Serpents. These two classes of animals 

 are indeed nearly akin, a serpent resembling a lizard which has 

 been lengthened out and deprived of its feet. Fishes again 

 resemble these two groups in all their parts, excepting that, 

 while these, being land animals, have a lung, fishes have no lung, 

 but gills in its place. Of all these animals, including the Fishes, 

 none excepting the tortoise has an urinary bladder.^ For, owing 

 to the bloodlessness of their lung, they drink but little ; and such 

 moisture as they have is converted into scales, as in birds it is 

 converted into feathers ; ^ and so they come to have the same 

 white matter on the surface of their excretions as we see on 

 those of birds. For even in animals that have a bladder, if the 

 excretion when voided be placed in a vessel, it will throw down 

 a deposit of earthy brine.* ' For the sweet and fresh elements, 

 being light, are expended on the flesh. 



Among the Serpents, the same peculiarity attaches to vipers, 

 as among the fishes attaches to the Selachia. For both these 

 and vipers are externally viviparous, but previously produce ova 

 internally.^ 



The stomach in all these animals is single, just as it is single 

 in all other* animals^ that have teeth in front of both jaws ; and 

 their viscera are excessively small, as alwiays happens when there 

 is no bladder. In serpents these viscera are, moreover, differently 

 shaped from what they are in other animals. For, a serpent's 

 676b. 



