OHAPTEE n. 



OPHIDIAN REPTILES, OE TRUE SNAKES. 



Reptiles are, as has boen said in the preceding chapter, Verte- 

 brated Animals, breathing by lungs, having red and cold blood; 

 that is to say, not producing sufficient heat to render their tem- 

 perature superior to that of the atmosphere. Destitute of hairs, 

 of feathers, of mammary glands, and having bodies covered with 

 scales. 



Snakes, properly so called, have the tympanic bone, or pedicle 

 of the lower jaw, movable, and nearly always suspended to another 

 bone, analogous to the mastoid bone, which is attached to the cra- 

 nium hj muscles and ligaments, a conformation which gives to these 

 animals the vast power of distension thej' possess. Their trachea 

 is long, their hearts placed far back, and the greater number have 

 one very long lung and vestiges of a second. They arc divided 

 into non- venomous and venomous ; and the latter are sub-divided 

 into venenious with maxillarj' teeth, and venenious with isolated 

 fangs. 



The Snakes prey almost exclusively on animals of their OAA'n 

 killing ; the more tj'pical species attacking such as are frequently 

 larger than themselves : and the maxillary aj^paratus is, as we 

 have seen, modified so as to permit of the requisite distension. 

 According to Professor Owen's clear and intelligible descrip- 

 tion, the two superior maxillary bones have their anterior 

 extremities joined by an elastic and yielding fibrous tissue 

 with the small and single intermaxillar_y bone ; the lower maxil- 

 lary rami are similarly connected. The opposite extremity of 

 each ramus is articulated to a, long and movable vertical pedicle 

 formed by the tympanic bone, which is itself attached to the 



