54: 
apparently drawn on the cowl of the snake, which 
derives its common name from them, the reticulated 
yellow and brown lines so regularly drawn on the 
scales of the boa constrictor, the checquers, the zig- 
zags, the diamond forms and bands of various co- 
lours in many serpents, appear like painting laid on 
subsequent to the formation of the scales, in con- 
tinuity of pattern from the head to the tail. Similar 
decorations of the bodies of lizards and the shells of 
tortoises afford conspicuous distinctions of species, 
although they do not point out to the philosopher 
the generical indices of allied character or peculiar 
destination. Fish of every order exhibit markings of 
nice adjustment to parts and to changes of growth, 
with regularity of lines both strait and waving, and 
balanced intervals of spots of various colour. The 
trout, the mackerel, the flounder, afford obvious in- 
stances; but the scorpeena, coryhzena, anarrichas, 
and many others of rarer occurrence, are not less 
remarkable as to the disposition of their spots, lines, 
and tints, than birds or insects. The animal in- 
habiting the argonauta, and that of the pearly nau- 
axis deer or zebra, each fibre of the feather of the peacock! or 
Argus pheasant, each scale of the mackerel, each grain of scaly 
powder on the butterfly's wing, bears a definite relation to the 
general pattern, as much as each thread in a piece of tapestry : 
also that each hair, scale, and fibre is often marked with more 
than one colour in different parts of its length and breadth, and 
even on its upper and lower surface, like the threads of printed 
linen and calico, and of watered silks and stuffs: and the pattern 
owes its exactness to the nicely-adjusted juxtaposition of all these 
parts of each hair, scale, and fibre. 
