AMPHIBIA. 



3 



Many of the Amphibia are possessed of a high 

 degree of reproductive power, and will be fur- 

 nished with new feet, tails, &c. when those parts 

 have by any accident been destroyed. Many are 

 highly beautiful in their colours, as Avell as ele- 

 gant in their forms ; while others, on the con- 

 trary, are, in the common acceptation of the 

 words, extremely deformed, and of unpleasing 

 colours. Their bodies are sometimes defended by 

 a hard, horny shield or covering ; sometimes ra- 

 ther by a coriaceous integument ; sometimes by 

 scales, and sometimes have no particular defence 

 or coating; the skin being merely marked by soft, 

 pustular warts or protuberances, more or less vi- 

 sible in the different species. 



The bones of the Amphibia, except in a very 

 few instances, are of a more cartilaginous nature 

 than in either the Mammalia or Birds : many spe- 

 cies are destitute of ribs, while others have those 

 parts very numerous: some are furnished with for- 

 midable teeth ; others are toothless : some are 

 fierce and predacious ; other inoffensive. Few, 

 except among the Serpent tribe, are of a poisonous 

 nature ; the general prejudice against them hav- 

 ing arisen rather on account of their form, than 

 from any real poisonous quality ; but among the 

 Serpents we meet with some species possessed 

 of the most dreadful poison, as well as with the 

 power of applying it with fatal force to the ani- 

 mals which they attack. The number of poison- 

 ous Serpents is, however, not so great as was for- 

 merly imagined ; perhaps not more than a sixth 



