54 MANUAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



advance by either end, also present singular and 

 wonderful gradations. The Tortoises, lacustrine and 

 terrestrial, with rounded bodies and more slug- 

 gish motions, appear, at first sight, widely removed 

 from the more slender and active creatures to which 

 we have just alluded; yet these, as well as the ma- 

 rine Turtles which propel themselves through the 

 water by means of their fin-shaped extremities, alike 

 agree in presenting all the essential characters of the 

 class. New-Holland, so prolific in novel forms, sup- 

 plies a Tortoise (Chelodina), whose long, swan-like 

 neck, bearing a small head, with fierce-looking eyes, 

 almost carries us back in fancy to those remote times 

 when the somewhat similarly-constituted Plesiosau- 

 tus moved through primeval waters, of which ani- 

 mal this Australian species would seem to be a living 

 representative. The Chameleon, so renowned in 

 story and in fable, is one of the existing wonders of 

 this class, and still condescends to exhibit to the 

 amazed beholder its seemingly magical power of 

 changing its complexion. The origin of the belief 

 in some of the fabulous creatures of antiquity, as 

 the Dragon or the Basilisk, may be traced to forms 

 which prevail even in these matter-of-fact-days. 

 The latter name is still retained by an elegant tro- 

 pical Lizard, which has, however, lost the dread 

 power of its namesake of old, and we still possess a 

 Flying-Dragon, which, though terrible no longer, 

 flits about with its wing-like appendages from tree 

 to tree among the forests of the Indian Archipelago. 

 A mystical member of this alliance is the semi- 



