ZOOLOGY. 



VERTEBRATA. 



CLASS III. REPTILIA.* 



" Few beings are more worthy of the attention 

 of the thinking observer than the proscribed and 

 persecuted animals to whose history the course of 

 our labours now conducts us. If the graphic and 

 eloquent descriptions, suggested to the historians 

 of nature by the two preceding classes of the animal 

 kingdom, have power to instruct and delight us, 

 with no less pleasure and profit may we accompany 

 them in their researches on the present, and pene- 

 trate into the sombre retreats of the Reptile races 

 in the bosom of the earth, behind the broken masses 

 of the rock, or under the scattered debris of gigantic 

 vegetables. We may pursue their evolutions over 

 the tranquil surface of lakes, of streams, and rivers ; 

 mark the tortuous folds by which they attach them- 

 selves to the branches ; and unveil the mechanism 



* Repto, to creep. 

 VOL. II. B 



