18 BATRAGHIANS. 



impure swamps, they make incessant war upon the worms and 

 insects which abound in those localities. In their turn they find 

 implacable enemies in the birds of the marshes, which check their 

 prodigious multiplication. In this manner equilibrium is main- 

 tained. 



Some of the animals which now occupy our attention render 

 more direct service to man by the part which they fulfil at his 

 table. Frogs are eaten in the south of France, Italy, and many 

 other countries ; and in some parts of the south of France, Adders 

 are eaten under the name of Hedge-eels. We know the favour in 

 which Turtles are held in England, where turtle-soup is considered 

 a dish only fit for merchant princes. In some countries Iguanas, 

 Crocodiles, and even Serpents are eaten. Viper-broth, which was 

 known to Hippocrates, is discontinued as an article of food. 



As we have already remarked, the peculiar nature of their 

 organization leads Reptiles and Batrachians to seek the warmer 

 regions of the earth. It is in those regions that they attain the 

 enormous dimensions which distinguish certain Serpents ; there, 

 too, they secrete their most subtle poisons, and display the most 

 lively colours — which, if less rich than those of Birds and Fishes, 

 are not less startling in efiect. Many Serpents and Lizards glitter 

 with radiant metallic reflections, and some of them present ex- 

 tremely varied combinations of colour. Chameleons are found 

 in the same localities, but in the Old World only ; these and some 

 other Lizards are remarkable for changing their colour, a pheno- 

 menon which is also seen among the Frogs, but in a smaller degree. 



Reptiles and Batrachians were numerous in the early ages 

 of our globe. It was then that those monstrous Saurians lived, 

 whose dimensions even are startling to our imagination. The 

 forms of the Reptiles and Batrachians of the early ages of the 

 earth were much more numerous, their dimensions much greater, 

 and their means of existence more varied than those of the 

 present time. Our existent Reptiles are very degenerate descen- 

 dants of those of the great geological periods, unless we except 

 the Crocodiles and the gigantic Boas and Pythons. Whilst the 

 Reptiles of former ages disported their gigantic masses, and 

 spread terror amongst other living creatures, alike by their for- 

 midable armature and their prodigious numbers, they are now 



