INDIAN SNAKE-CHARMER. 



(From a Sketch by a Native Artist.) 



BEPTILES AND SNAKE-STONES. 



REPTILES, in zoology, constitute a Class of 

 vertebrate animals (that is, animals with 

 a backbone) intermediate between birds and 

 fishes, having a greater affinity with the latter 

 than the former. They are generally described 

 in scientific works as having cold blood, being 

 the possessors of a heart with sometimes one 

 and sometimes two auricles, but with only one 

 ventricle ; so that, at most, there are but three 

 chambers in their hearts instead of four. They 

 are still further characterized as oviparous, 

 breathing by lungs, or partly by lungs and partly 

 by means of gills; thus combining one of the 

 elements of fish-life with those of higher organ- 



