SKELETON OF CROCODILE. 3 



With the exception of the tortoise, the Reptiles mostly possess a goodly array of 

 teeth, set in the jaw or palate, and as a general fact, being sharp and more or less 

 curved backward. Their bodies are covered with various modifications of the structure 

 termed the dermal, /. c. skin skeleton, and are furnished with scales and plates of dif- 

 ferent forms. In some cases the scales lie overlapping each other like those of the 

 fish, in others they are modified into knobby plates, and in some, of which the tortoises 

 afford well-known examples, they form large flat plates on the back and breast, and 

 scales upon the feet and legs. 



The young of Reptiles are produced from eggs, mostly being hatched after they have 

 been laid, but in some cases the young escape from the eggs before they make their 

 appearance in the world. As a general fact, however, the eggs of Reptiles are placed 

 in some convenient spot, where they are hatched by the heat of the sun. Some species 



SKELETON OP CROCODILE. 



are very jealous about their eggs, keeping a strict watch over them, and several of the 

 larger serpents have a curious fashion of laying the eggs in a heap, and then coiling 

 themselves around them in a great hollow cone. The size of the eggs is extremely 

 variable, for, although as a general fact those of the smaller Reptiles are large in pro- 

 portion to the dimensions of the parent, those of the crocodiles and alligators are 

 wonderfully small, not larger than those of our domestic geese, and in many cases much 

 smaller. They are usually of a dull white color, and in some instances are without a 

 brittle shell, their covering being of a tough leathery consistence. 



In form, and often in color, the Reptiles exhibit an inexhaustible variety, and even 

 each order displays a diversity of outward aspect unexampled in the two previous 

 classes of Mammals and Birds. Strange, grotesque, and oftentimes most repulsive in 

 appearance, though sometimes adorned with the brightest tints, the Reptiles excite an 

 instinctive repugnance in the human breast ; and whether it be a lizard, a snake, or a 

 tortoise, the sudden and unsuspected contact of one of these beings will cause even 

 the most habituated to recoil from its cold touch. This antipathy may, perhaps, have 

 some connection with the instinctive association of cold with death ; but whatever may 

 be the cause, the feeling is deep and universal 



