REPTILES. 
1. Serpents or Orphidiam Reptiles. 
SERPENTS. 
Their flaming crests above the waves they show ; 
Their bodies seem to burn the seas below ; 
Their speckled tails advance to steer their course, 
And on the sounding shore the flying billows force. 
And now the strand, and now the plain they held ; 
Their ardent eyes with bloody streaks were fill'd, 
Their nimble tongues they brandish'd as they came, 
And lick'd their hissing jaws that sputter'd flame. 
DRYDEN'S VIRGIL. 
SERPENTS are characterized by an elongated body, clothed 
in scales, and destitute of limbs, but furnished with a tail. 
They move by lateral undulations of the body ; and in this 
manner they glide with equal ease over the bare ground, 
or through entangled thickets, through water, and up the 
trunks of trees. As they possess the power of fasting a 
great length of time, and as when they feed, they always 
swallow their prey whole, they possess the power of di- 
lating their bodies to an enormous size occasionally, so 
as to contain what they have gorged. This power is car- 
