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ichneumon. The male is said to destroy many of 
the young when they first make their way into the 
water. The alligator builds a truncated cone of 
accumulated mud, depositing alternate layers of eggs 
and mud to the height of four or five feet, and of 
nearly the same diameter. When the young are 
hatched by the sun, the female is said to attend 
them with care. The cry of the young is said to 
be whining, like that of puppies; but the parent 
animals utter a loud and terrifying roar. In the 
rivers of South America they are often very nume- 
rous, and fill the air with offensive musky effluvia. 
The chameleon is said to lay from nine to twelve 
eggs. The coluber berus, the common viper or ad- 
der, produces about ten young from eggs hatched 
within the matrix. In cases of sudden alarm, the 
young rush for shelter into the mouth and gullet of 
the parent. The coluber natrix, or common snake, 
deposits its string of eggs in dungheaps or other 
piles of rotten vegetables, in number about twenty. 
Frogs and toads produce a numerous offspring : the 
latter, however, much fewer than the former. 
The rana pipa, or Surinam toad, matures its 
young in singular cells, which cover the surface of 
its back, bearing from ten to twenty in these strange 
postnatal matrices. This animal lives on land; but 
when its young, which are tadpoles, and provided 
with external fins in their early state, are just ready 
to emerge from their cells, it seeks the water, that 
its brood may be deposited in their watery cradle. 
Fish are, for the most part, oviparous ; and very 
