REPTILIA—LIZARD. 697 
“The alligator, when after prey in the water, or at its edge, swims so 
slowly towards it, as not to ruffle the water. It approaches the object side- 
ways, body and head all concealed, till sure of -his stroke; then, with a tre- 
mendous blow, as quick as thought, the object is secured, as I described 
before.” 
Be) il ZA RD! 
Tue color of these animals is very various, as they are found of a hun- 
dred different hues; green, blue, red, chesnut, yellow, spotted, streaked, and 
marbled. Were color alone capable of constituting beauty, the lizard would 
often please; but there is something so repulsive in the animal’s figure, 
that the brilliancy of its scales, or the variety of its spots, only tend to give 
an air of more exquisite venom, of greater malignity. The figure of these 
animals is not less various; sometimes swollen in the belly, sometimes 
pursed up at the throat; sometimes with a rough set of spines on the back, 
like the teeth of a saw; sometimes with teeth, at others with none; some- 
times venomous, at others harmless, and even philanthropic; sometimes 
smooth and even; sometimes with a Jong, slender tail; and often witha 
shorter blunt one. 
But their greatest distinction arises from their manner of bringing forth 
their young; some of them are viviparous; some are oviparous; and some 
bring forth small spawn, like fishes. 
THE GREEN LIZAR D? 
wits ‘ a 5 NAN 
Pag te 
Is seen in its greatest brilliancy about the beginning of spring; when, after 
having thrown off its old covering, it exposes its new skin, with all its bright 
enamelled scales, to the genial warmth of the sun’s rays, which, playing on 
the scales, gild them with undulating reflections. The upper parts of the 
1 The genus Lacerta has the palate armed with two rows of teeth; a collar on the under 
side of the neck, formed by a transverse row of iarge scales, separated from those of the 
helly by very small ones ; bone of the cranium projected on the temples and orbits. 
2 Lacerta viri lis, Dauv. 
68 59 
