21 8 Fresh Water Aquarium 



REPTILES. 

 The reptiles form one of the most inter- 

 esting elasses of the animal kingdom, 

 where they occupy a distinctly separate po- 

 sition. Like other of the higher organ- 

 ized animals, they breathe through lungs, 

 without undergoing the metamorphosis to 

 which the Amphibians are subject. Rep- 

 tiles are cold-blooded and are covered with 

 bony and horny plates, or scales. While 

 many orders are extinct, several are still 

 living, of which only two are of interest to 

 the aquarist, — the turtles and the lizards. 

 Their propagation is by eggs. In some spe- 

 cies the latter are kept within the body until 

 the young are fully developed so that they 

 are born in the form of the parents, in others 

 the eggs leave the body of the parent with 

 the young only partly formed, in which case 

 the sun completes the hatching process. 

 Most reptiles hibernate in a state of deep 

 sleep, close to inanimateness. 



