DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS OP ANIMALS. 



199 



bials for the express purpose of receiving it, which he proposed to deno- 

 minate MEANTES.* 



As the Linnean class of amphibials at present stands, it consists of not 

 more than two orders, reptiles, or amphibious animals possessing feet : 

 and SERPENTS, or amphibious animals without feet. The difterent kinds 

 under each are but few : the reptiles containing only five ; the testudo, 

 draco, lacerta, rana, and siren ; or, in plain English, the tortoise, flying 

 dragon, hzard, frog or toad, ai^d siren. The serpents comprise only seven 

 genera ; the crotalus, or rattle-snake ; boa ; coluber or viper ; anguis, 

 harmless snake or bhnd- worn) ; amjjhisbffina ; coecilia; and achrochordus. 



Among the reptiles, the most extensive and important kind is the 

 lacerta or lizard ; for it includes, among other species, the alligator, 

 crocodile, proper lizard, chameleon, salamander, newt, and eft. 



Among the seven genera of serpents, the first three, rattJe-snske, boa, 

 and viper, or rather coluber, are more or less poisonous ; the rattle-snake 

 in air its species, which are six or seven ; the boa, in five, out of about 

 seventeen ; and the coluber or viper, in about thirty, out of about a hundred 

 and thirty : the two most fatal of which last are, C. Ceraatesy or horned 

 serpent : and C. Naja^ hooded serpent, or cobra de capello. In both 

 Asia and Africa we meet with whole tribes of barbarians, who are capable 

 of handling the most poisonous of these amphibials, and of eating them 

 up ahve from head to tail, without the smallest injury : even the bite itself 

 producing no mischief These barbarians, some of whom were known 

 to the Greeks and Romans, and are particularly alluded to by Celsus and 

 Lucan, were formerly called Psylli. The power they affect has been 

 laughed at by M. Denon, but without any kind of reason for derision. It 

 is a curious subject, however, and connected with others of equal singu- 

 larity ; and must, therefore, be reserved for a* future study.! 



The poisonous serpents differ from each other iii their respective kinds, 

 by having their bodies more or less covered with scuta or plates, instead 

 of with mere scales ; excepting that the rattle-snake is chiefly distinguished 

 by the rattle at his tail. The four harmless genera are characterized by 

 having their bodies covered altogether with simple scales, and never with 

 plates, or as being ringed, wrinkled, or tubercled. 



This class is not much disturbed by M. Cuvier's later arrangement ; but 

 he has separated the tortoises from the hzards, denominating the first, as 

 an order, chelonia ; and the second, saurja ; and has removed the frogs, 

 salamanders, and siren, into a fourth order, to which he has given the 

 name of batkachia, characterizing them by the possession of a naked 

 skin ; feet ; with branchiae in the young. 



But we must hasten in our rapid career to the bird class, distinguished 

 by having the body covered with feathers and down ; protracted and naked 

 jaws ; two wings, formed for flight ; and biped. This class consists of six 

 orders: accipitres: piece; anseres; grallae; gallinas; passeres. In English 

 synonyms, birds of prey ; pies ; web-footed* birds ; v^aders ; gallinaceous 

 birds ; and the mixed classes of thrushes, sparrows, and finches. T hese 

 orders are chiefly distinguished from each other by the peculiar make of the 

 bill, and of the feet. Under M. Cuvier's classification the divisions, and 

 even the names are the same, with the exception that for pica3, or pies, he 

 has given the better appellation of scansores or climbers. Every one 

 of them, or rather every distinct kind under every one of them, might 



* Gmelin and Camper introduced it into the class of fishes; and in Turton it occurs in 

 the class Mammalia, order Bi uta, as a variety of the trichechus manati, or lamantin. 

 t See Lect. VI. of this Series, 



