OF LIZARDS. 
235 
This animal is in form more hideous limn even the common 
toad. The body is Hat and broad ; the head small ; the jaws, 
like those of the mole, are extended, and evidently formed 
for rooting in the ground : the skin of the neck forms a 
sort of wrinkled collar; are colour of the head is of a dark 
chesnut, and the eyes are small : the back, which is very 
broad, is of a lightish grey, and seems covered over with a 
number of small eyes, which are round, and placed at nearly 
equal distances. These eyes are very different from what 
they seem ; they are the animal’s eggs covered with their 
shells, and placed there for hatching. These eggs are buried 
deep in the skin, and in the beginning of gestation but just 
appear; and are very visible when the young animal is 
about to burst from its confinement. They are of a reddish, 
shining yellow colour ; and the spaces between them are 
full of small warts, resembling pearls. 
In this manner the Pipal is seen travelling with her won- 
drous family on her back, in all the different stages of ma- 
turity. Some of the strange progeny not yet come to suffi- 
cient perfection, appear quits torpid, and as yet without 
life in the egg : others seem just beginning to rise through 
the skin ; here peeping forth from the shell, and there 
having entirely forsaken their prison : some are sporting at 
large upon their parent’s back ; and others descending to 
the ground, to try their own fortune below. 
Of Lizards. It is no easy matter to tell to what class 
in nature lizards arc chiefly allied. They are unjustly raised 
to the rank of beasts, as they bring forth eggs, dispense 
with breathing, and are not covered with hair. They can- 
not be placed among fishes, as the majority of them live 
upon the land : they are excluded from the serpent tribe, 
by their feet, upon which they run with some celerity ; and 
from the insects, by their size ; for though the newt may be 
looked upon in this contemptible light, a crocodile would 
be a terrible insect indeed. 
As lizards thus differ from every other class of animals, they 
also differ widely from each other. With respect to size, 
no class of beings has its ranks so opposite. 
The colour of' these animals also is \ ery various ; as they 
are found of a hundred different hues : green, blue, red, 
chesnut, yellow, spotted, streaked, and marbled. Were co- 
lour alone capable of constituting beauty, the lizard would 
often please ; but there is something so repressing in the ani- 
mal’s figure, that the brilliancy of its scales, or the variety of 
Hs sports, only tend to give an air of more exquisite venom of 
