372 Notes on an alleged species of poisonous Lizard, §c. 



ask, what is a Biscopra ? Popular report states it to be a 

 kind of lizard, whose bite is certain death. It is said to be 

 found in old walls and ruins, to be a few inches only in 

 length, and to be wonderfully agile and nimble, so that to 

 catch it is very difficult. Up the country I have spoken 

 with natives who declared, that they had frequently seen it, 

 and who spoke of it with entire conviction of its fatal capa- 

 bility. The belief in the creature's existence, however, ex- 

 tends even to respectable Europeans ; who most likely de- 

 rived that belief from the reports of natives, without much 

 inquiry on their own part. At the time that the conversation 

 I have alluded to occurred at the Medical and Physical 

 Society, I wrote to several of my friends up the country, 

 requesting of them to procure for me, if possible, a living or 

 dead Biscopra — and sure enough, an old brother officer sent 

 me a specimen, preserved in spirits, of what he believed to 

 be a Biscopra. 



The probability is, that much of what has been reported 

 of the fatal result of the Biscopra's bite is fabulous. It is 

 an old proverb — " give a dog a bad name, and hang him." 

 Alas ! the consequence may apply to nobler creatures than 

 the poor dog ; but, be that as it may — the ban of the vene- 

 rable saying applies to several harmless reptiles and insects. 

 I recollect as a boy believing that the bite of the dragon- 

 fly was a fearful thing. This was believed by hundreds of 

 children besides me, and for ought I know, may be cre- 

 dited by hundreds of children, even in this boasted age of 

 intellect. Some of the lizard family, as the Chalcides, the 

 Apodal, and Anguina, approach in externals, if not in habits, 

 so near to the snake family, that it is not surprising, they 

 should, by ignorant persons, be regarded with feelings of 

 dread, from their resemblance to that reptile, which men may 

 be said universally to hold in intuitive horror. Accordingly, 

 we shall find the ryot of Behar, and the highland peasant 

 concurring in the belief that there is a lizard in the moors 



