THE NATURAL HISTORY 
[LETT. 
words. Speaking of the opercula or coverings to the gills of 
the Mud inguana, he proceeds to say that " the form of these 
pennated coverings approaches very near to what I have some 
time ago observed in the larva or aquatic state of our English 
Lacerta, known by the name of eft or newt: which serve them for 
coverings to their gills, and for fins to swim with while in this 
state ; and which they lose, as well as the fins of their tails, when 
GKEATHAM CHURCH. 
they change their state and become land animals, as I have 
observed, by keeping them alive for some time myself." 
Linnaeus, in his "Systema Is^aturaa," hints more than once at 
what Mr. Ellis advances. 
Providence has been so indulgent to us as to allow of but one 
venomous reptile of the serpent kind in these kingdoms, and 
that is the viper. As 3'ou propose the good of mankind to he 
