REPTILES. 289 



Bats. Most of them had the nose elongated, like the snout 

 of a Crocodile, and the mouth armed with conical teeth. 

 Fingers, furnished with long hooks, gave them the means of 

 climbing trees, or hanging in the manner of the Bat and the 

 Vampire. The eyes were of enormous size, apparently as a 

 provision for nocturnal flight. From the remains of insects 

 found with the hones of Pterodactyles near Oxford, some 

 confirmation of the conjecture is derived, that their food was 

 insects; but the larger species of Pterodactyle had head and 

 teeth so much larger and stronger than such prey required, 

 that they may possibly have fed on fishes, darting down upon 

 them from the air. It is probable, therefore, they possessed 

 the power of swimming; and thus qualified for all services 

 and all elements, they realised Milton's description: 



' The fiend 



O'er bog or steep, through straight, rough, dense, or rare, 

 With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, 

 And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies." 



PARADISE LOST, Book ii. line 947. 



ORDER IV. TESTUDINATA.* TORTOISES. 



" And in his needy shop a Tortoise hung, 

 An Alligator stuffed, and other skins 

 Of ill-shaped fishes." SHAKSPEARE. 



LET it not excite surprise that, in the passage just quoted, 

 the word " fishes " should be applied to reptiles. It is still 

 used by the uneducated in speaking of warm-blooded mammalia, 

 which, like the Whale, live in the sea. And let us not look 

 with scorn upon those fallacies; for ever as our own know- 

 ledge increases, we should become more sensible of its limited 

 extent, and more indulgent towards the errors of others. 

 Tortoises are distinguished from all other reptiles by having 



* Latin Testudo, a Tortoise. The Greek chelys signifies a Water 

 Tortoise; the term chelonian reptiles, which is hence derived, is applied 

 both to land and to water species. 



