CROCODILE. 
proper stations to the Crocodile and Lizard, 
in any regular system, has so far carried 
great men into opposite extreme?, that Ray 
exalts them both among Quadrupeds ; while 
even tlie acute Linnsus, by placing them 
among Serpents, degrades them into the rank 
of Reptiles. Brisson positively calls them, in 
spite of their four legs, a distia<ft class of Rep- 
tiles ; while Klein, on the other hand, deno- 
minates them Naked Quadrupeds. In short, 
from their scalv covering, and attachment to 
the water, some have given them to the Fishes ; 
\vhile others have even classed them with In- 
se6ls. In this last class, the ingenious Gold- 
smith seems willing to place tlie snialler kinds, 
of Lizards ; but he fesls sensible of the ab- 
surdltv, when he comes thus to marshal the 
Crocodile, exclaiming — a Crocodile would 
be a terrible insect, indeed i" 
When we consider, that Crocodiles are often 
thirty feet in length, and some Lizards not more 
than a single inch; if size, alone, were any 
rule in arranging the produdlions cf nature, 
which it certainly is not, we might wonder, 
with Scba, how they ever came to be cla,^sed 
togcilicr. or t!ic L'*i'ard species tl:crc is scarcely 
a.;v 
