TRAVELS W 
2j6 
all over the country. Their fpawn being hatched 
in the warm water, the larva is there nourifhed, 
paffing through the like metamorphofes as the 
water frogs ; and as foon as they obtain four feet, 
whillt yet no larger than crickets, they leave the 
fluid nurfery-bed, and hop over the dry land after 
their parents. 
The food of thefe amphibious creatures, when 
out of the water, is every kind of infeft, reptile, 
&c. they can take, even ants and fpiders ; nature 
having furnifhed them with an extreme long tongue, 
which exudes a vifcid or glutinous liquid, they be- 
ing fecreted under covert, fpring fuddenly upon 
their prey, or dart forth their tongue as quick as 
lightning, and inftantly drag into their devouring 
jaws the unwary infe6t. But whether they prey up- 
on one another, as the water frogs do, I know not. 
There are feveral fpecies of the lizard kind be- 
fides the alligator, which is by naturalifts allowed 
to be a fpecies of that genus. 
The green lizard or little green chameleon is a 
pretty innocent creature : the largeft I have feen 
were not more than feven inches in length: they 
appear commonly of a fine green colour, having a 
large red gill under their throat : they have the fa- 
culty of changing colour, which, notwithstanding 
the fpecious reafoning of phyfiologifls, is a very 
furprifing phenomenon. The fbriped lizard, called 
fcorpion, and the blue bellied fquamous lizards I 
have already mentioned. There is a large copper 
coloured lizard, and a very flender one of a fine 
blue colour, and very fwift; the tail of this laft, 
which is very long and flender, is as fubje£t to be 
broken off as that of the glafs fnake, Thefe two 
laft 
