100 



CLASS REPTILIA. 



ORDER SAURIA. 



in the Nile, only in Upper Egypt, where the temperature is very high, and 

 where the animal never becomes torpid: when it comes down in the 

 streams which water the Delta, according to Pliny's account, it passes the 

 four winter months in the caverns without nourishment. The head of 

 this crocodile is about twice as long as its breadth ; the holes in the skull 

 are broader than their length ; the snout irregular and rough ; immediately 

 behind the skull are four little crested scales placed transversely, and behind 

 them, the neck-piece composed of six crested scales ; next to them are two 

 single scales, followed by sixteen transverse dorsal rows ; besides these, on 

 each side, is a row of seven or eight crested scales ; the crested scales on 

 the tail do not begin to be distinct till the sixth row, and then form two 

 crests, which unite about the seventeenth or eighteenth row, which is the 

 number of caudal rows always found. In consequence of the regularity of 

 the scales, Cuvier says that the back of the Nilotic crocodile appears as if 

 paved with quadrangular stones. The colour of the back is a .greenish- 

 bronze, speckled with brown ; whilst that of the belly is of a greenish- 

 yellow. The Crocodile lays, at three or four times, not far distant from each 

 other, about twenty eggs, in size nearly resembling those of the Swan, 

 which it buries in the sand, and having covered them, leaves them to be 

 hatched by the heat of the sun. 



The Spectacle Alligator (C. Sclerops) is the most common Alligator in 

 Guiana and Brazil, and is remarkable for a bony crest between the orbits ; 

 on the back of the neck are four very strong transverse bands, which touch 

 each other, and join the dorsal bands. The colour of this Alligator is 

 greenish, brown above, and spotted with green, and pale yellowish-green 

 beneath. 



Alligators grow to a large size, sometimes to the length of fourteen feet ; 

 they are natives of South America, where they were called Caymans by 

 the natives. They spend the greater part of night in the water ; but 

 during the daytime bask in the sun upon the sands, and generally run to 

 the water when they see either man or dog ; in the water they are not so 

 timid ; for, according to De la Borde's account, at Cayenne, they will often 

 attempt to get into the boats which pass along the river. It is said that 

 these animals form a kind of hillock on the bank of the river, in which they 

 deposit their eggs, to the number of sixty, at two or three different periods. 



ORDER HI. SAUKIA. LIZARDS. 



THE order Sauria includes a vast number of animals, varying in size from 

 the large and predaceous Monitor (Tupinambis), down to the beautiful 

 Chameleon of lands bordering on the Mediterranean, or the harmless little 

 Lizard of our copses. Then- form and habits are also varied. Most of 

 them are distinguished by their Snake-like tongue slender, extensible, 

 forked ; by their long body, and by their rapid gait ; by their five toes, 

 which are armed with claws, and by the scales under their belly being dis- 

 posed in parallel transverse lines. They are bright-eyed and adorned with 

 resplendent colours. 



Family LIZARD-LIKE; Lacertidae. 



ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES. 



PLATE 3. 



Genera. 



Species. 



Tupinambis - ... Nilotica 

 Lacerta -....- Ocellata 



Common Name. 



- - - - Nilotic Ouaran. 



- ... Eyed Lizard. 



CHARACTERS OF THE GENERA. 



1. TtTPTNAMBis. Head oblong, pyramidal; teeth in both jaws ; tongue 

 forked, extensible ; upper part of the body covered with very minute hex- 

 agonal or rounded scales, disposed in bands; belly covered with small 

 .square scales ; tail as long as the body, thick, cylindrical at its base, taper- 

 ing towards its tip ; in some there are, and in others there are not femoral 

 pores; hind legs longest and stoutest; all furnished with five distinct 

 slender toes, having little curved claws. 



2. LACERTA. Head oblong, pyramidal, covered with a few scales ; palate 

 armed with two rows of teeth ; tongue forked, extensile ; aural opening 



oblong, deep; a collar of transverse broad scales, separated by other smaller 

 ones from those of the belly, which arc square and disposed in from six to 

 ten rows ; upper part of the body covered with numerous transverse rows 

 of small scales ; tail as long as the body, the scales disposed in rings, without 

 either crest or keel above ; hind feet longer than those in front, all five-toed, 

 distinct, and armed with little claws, the little toe of the hind feet placed on 

 the side a little below the others ; under each thigh a row of little grains or 

 scaly tubercles, which are porous. 



Other Genera of this Family : Chalcides, Pygopus, Tachydronuis. 



LACERTIDA.' DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIES. 



TDPINAMBIS. The species are numerous, and are divided into Ouarans 

 and Teyous; the former of which have the head, limbs, belly, and tail 

 covered with numerous small scales, which, ranged in a double row, form a 

 sort of crest upon the tail, in some species very distinct, but in others scarcely 

 visible ; no femoral pores. In the latter, the head is covered with angular 

 scales ; the throat skin is disposed in a double fold and overspread with 

 small scales ; the belly and the tail furnished with large rectangular scales ; 

 and on each thigh is a row of pores. 



The Nilotic Ouaran (Plate 3) measures from three to three and a half 

 feet in length, of which the tail is one-half, according to Isidore St. Hilaire, 

 but Cuvier states that it sometimes measures five or six feet from the muzzle 

 to the tip of the tail. The upper part of the head is dusky, and the back 

 seems marbled only with green and black, but on closer observation, the 

 black is disposed in spots of various form, the greater number of which are 

 merely simple black lines, surrounding a paler space, in the middle of which 

 are found also some black scales ; under part of the body greenish ; sides of 

 the tail indistinctly banded with black and green. This species lives on tin- 

 banks of the Nile, and is often seen in the river itself. It is very predaceous, 

 attacking all the little animals it can master with great avidity ; and if irri- 

 tated hisses loudly, and endeavours to bite or to strike with its tail. 



LACERTA. The true Lizards are distributed very generally over the earth ; 

 they are lively, elegant little animals, running and skipping alxmt with great 

 agility, and climbing trees and perpendicular walls as easily as if running on 

 a flat surface : in the warm weather they may be seen basking in the sun, 

 but when it becomes cold they return to their holes, where they remain 

 throughout the winter. They are monogamous, and exhibit great attachment 

 to each other. They feed principally on insects, but the larger species occa- 

 sionally rob birds' nests of their eggs, and even destroy the young. None 

 of them are amphibious, a mode of life for which their cleft toes and rounded 

 tail render them incompetent. Some persons have supposed Lizards to be 

 poisonous ; but the experiments of Laurenti, who exposed birds to the bite 

 of the Lacerta Viridis, have proved this to be an absurd opinion ; but when 

 attacked they bite severely. There are several species. 



The Eyed Green Lizard (Plate 3) is the largest of the genus, being rather 

 more than a foot in length ; the belly is of a spotless light yellow ; the whole 

 of the upper parts, the neck, and limbs are covered with zigzag lines, points, 

 and circlets of a beautiful bright green on a black ground ; the sides are 

 bright green marked with eight or ten transverse double stripes; the tail 

 brownish, but deeper at its root, and speckled with numerous green dots. 

 This Lizard is found in all the southern countries of Europe, and not un- 

 commonly in Switzerland and France, occasionally even in Sweden and 

 Kamtschatka. 



CHALCIDES. The generic term Chalcides was employed by Pliny t< > desig- 

 nate a species of Lizard, which had certain stripes on the back of a brassy 

 colour. The Chalcides seem to form a connecting link between the Sauria 

 and the Ophidia by their much-lengthened body, and the distance at which 

 the anterior are placed from the posterior extremities. 



Chalcydes. 



