REPTILES AND SNAKE- STONES. / 



Sand Lizard and the Viviparous Lizard, as well 

 as the Slow -worm, are true natives no one will 

 doubt ; but whether the Green Lizard deserves a 

 place in our Fauna is a more open question, and 

 is again referred to hereafter. The great Gavial 

 of the Ganges, sometimes nearly eighteen feet 

 long, the Crocodile of the Nile, the Alligator of 

 North America, and the Caymans of the South, 

 are the giants of this order ; but of these we have, 

 happily, no representative. In neither of the two 

 orders named do any of its members possess 

 poison-bags or venomous fangs, though we hap- 

 pen to know that it is a firmly-rooted opinion in 

 India that there is one or more species of lizard 

 capable of causing death by a wound, rendered 

 mortal either by a virulent saliva, or some other 

 means. Such a lizard, however, is entirely un- 

 known to scientific men, and by them the Bis- 

 cobra is believed to be only a phantom of ' the 

 heat-oppressed brain/ A surgeon, for many 

 years on service in India, tells us that he knew 

 of an instance of a man descending a well being 

 bitten by such a lizard, that he was drawn up 

 and indicated the position of the reptile ; that a 

 second man descended and killed the bis-cobra > 

 which was afterwards preserved in spirits at the 

 barrack -hospital for many years, and, finally, 

 that the man who was bitten died in consequence 

 in a few hours. 



