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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM

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NATURAL HISTORY

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BRITISH REPTILES.

HISTORY

OF

BRITISH REPTILES.

BY

THOMAS BELL, SEC. R.S. F.L.S. F.G.S.

CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE PHILOMATHIC AND NATURAL HISTORY
SOCIETIES OF PARIS, OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA, OF
THE BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY, ETC., ETC.
PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY IN KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON.

ILLUSTRATED BY 50 WOOD-ENGRAVINGS.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:

JOHN VAN VOORST, 1, PATERNOSTER ROW.
M,DCCO, XLIX,

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LONDON:
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BY HIS SINCERE FRIEND,

THE AUTHOR.

INTRODUCTION.

Tue Reptilia constitute a class of vertebrated animals
of which the structural characters are as follow :—They
have cold blood, — that is to say, their power of pro-
ducing animal heat is so limited as scarcely to be appre-
ciable, and not sufficient, therefore, to keep up any
standard temperature of the body, nor to prevent it from
following all the thermal variations of the atmosphere or
water by which they are surrounded.

The integument is covered with hard and dry cuticle
in various modifications of form, in some constituting
broad plates, in others imbricated scales. The heart is
in all cases trilocular,—that is to say, it is composed of
two auricles and a single ventricle; the respiration is
exclusively pulmonary throughout life, and their repro-
duction is oviparous. The Amphibia, or Batrachia, which
are included in the Reptilia by Cuvier and many other
naturalists, differ from them, however, in various essential
and important characters. The heart particularly is bilo-
cular: the integument is naked, and the respiration is
carried on by means of branchiz during the earlier period
of life, changing —in some totally, and in others parti-
ally —to the pulmonary character in the adult condi-
tion.

Vili INTRODUCTION.

The Reptilia, according to most naturalists, include five
orders: the Testudinata, or Tortoises and Turtles; the
Enaliosauria of Conybeare, to which the gigantic fossil
genera, the Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus belong; the
Loricata, or Crocodiles and Alligators; the Sawria, or
Lizard tribe, and the Ophidia, or Serpents.

There is no other class of vertebrated animals, the
different groups of which are formed upon types of struc-
ture differing so essentially from each other as_ these.
The eagle and the humming-bird, the ostrich and the
petrel, widely as they appear to be separated from each
other, not by size only, but by form and habits, still
exhibit the same general structure of the skeleton, of
the organs of digestion and motion, of the integument, .
and, in fact, of the whole organization of the body,—
the various systems of which differ only amongst the
different groups by comparative degrees of developement.
Even amongst the Mammalia, the whale with its enor-
mous and almost mountainous bulk, paddled through the
deepest retreats of ocean by its short fins, which are
modifications of the anterior extremities, and by that
broad expanded oar, its fleshy tail,—is still formed upon
the same general plan of organization as the little light
and aérial bat, which flits so rapidly through the regions
of air, supported by its thin membranous wings, which
are expanded upon slight and linear fingers, the repre-
sentatives of the same bones which in the former animal
are contracted imto a massive and shapeless fin. Nor
is there in the other organs of the body any more con-
siderable difference of developement. But in the present
class, the discrepancies are far more conspicuous, particu-
larly in the whole constitution of the skeleton, in the
organs of motion, in the integuments, and many other

INTRODUCTION. 1X

important portions of their organization. If, with Cuvier,
and most other Zoologists, we include the amphibious
group in this class, these discrepancies are still more re-
markable ; but even restricting our view to the Reptilia
proper, they are sufficiently striking ; and a slight glance
at the general structure of two of the orders will exhibit
them in a very obvious point of view.

In the Chelonians, or Tortoises, and in the Ophidians,
or Serpent tribe, the extremes of these different types of
organization are exhibited. In the common Kuropean
land Tortoise, Testudo Greca, which may be selected as
a familiar example of the former group, the whole struc-
ture of the skeleton is brought into the most compact
and solid state. The bones of the cranium and face are
consolidated into a single and immovable case, with
searcely the vestige of sutures showing the separation of
the different centres of ossification upon which it has
been formed; there are no teeth, but the margins of
the upper and of the lower jaw are covered by a horny
beak, the latter being received into a groove of the former,
and thus closing like the lid of a box; then the whole
of the dorsal vertebre, the ribs, the bones representing
the sterno-costal cartilages, and the broad united sternum,
are altogether compacted into a case of bone, without any
separation between the parts of which it is composed.
The anterior and posterior extremities are fully developed,
but, instead of being placed exterior to the thorax, they
are all of them contained within its cavity, and even the
bones of the feet are only extended beyond the horny box
which protects them, when the animal is employing them
in progression.

What a contrast to this solid and compact structure
is exhibited by the form of the lithe and tortuous Ser-

b

x INTRODUCTION.

pent! Most of the bones of the head are permanently
separate; those of the upper and lower jaw particularly
being capable of great extension; there are perfect teeth ;
the vertebre, which are extremely numerous, are sus-
ceptible of the most extensive lateral motion; and the ribs,
slender and but slightly attached, compensate for the ab-
sence of both anterior and posterior extremities, by being
themselves the instruments of the animal’s progression. It
is unnecessary here to enter more particularly into the
detail of these curious diversities of structure ; enough has
been said to show how far these two groups are separated
from each other in their general organization; and it needs
scarcely to be added that the diversity of their habits is
not less remarkable.

The relations of these groups seem almost to set all the
established principles of classification at defiance; nor is
there any one system hitherto promulgated which appears
to me satisfactorily to solve the difficulty. Those who have
made the most philosophical attempts to ascertain the
natural system, the grand and harmonious plan upon which
all organic creation is believed to have been formed, have
concurred in considering the Reptilia as constituting a
group of equal value in the vertebrate division of the animal
kingdom, with the Mammalia and birds. It may be safely
predicated that, if the system to which I more particularly
refer be true, all the groups of equal rank must be founded
upon characters of equal value and importance. That if,
for instance, the group of Mammalia and that of birds, be
equal to each other, each of the other classes—that is to
say, every other group of the same rank,—must be equal
to each other ; and also, that the subordinate groups in
each of these classes must exhibit the same mutual relations
in every case. But if it can be shown that in one class, so

INTRODUCTION. x1

called, two ordinal groups exhibit as great a discrepancy in
their relative plan of organization as any two classes do,
then the relation of the former to either of the latter is not,
and cannot be, the same as that which exists between the
latter two. Yet in this predicament stand the three first
classes of the Vertebrata; the relations of the Mammalia
and birds being much stronger and more obvious than those
of the Reptilia to either, and the two groups of the latter,
which I have just sketched, the Tortoises and the Serpents,
being nearly or quite as far removed by their structure
from each other as the birds are from the Mammalia. The
mode of reproduction is the sole exception of consequence
to this view of their relations ; and here we have, on the
other hand, a close approximation between the Reptilia
and the birds themselves.

These considerations appear to me to exhibit insur-
mountable objections to the consistency and unity of the
quinary arrangement, as representing an uniform and
perfect plan or system upon which the animal kingdom
was created; and I cannot believe that the occasional
occurrence of even striking and important coincidences,
which appear on a partial view to prove its truth, are
sufficient to counterbalance the evidence of its inconsis-
tency which I have just adduced.

I shall now enter into a more particular description of
the structure of these animals, commencing with the or-
gans of circulation and respiration. The heart, which is
formed of three cavities,—namely, of two distinct auricles
opening into one common ventricle, sends to the lungs, on
each contraction, a portion only of the blood which it has
received from the different parts of the body by the veins,
so that the blood which, by the heart’s contraction, is dis-
tributed te the body through the arteries, is of a mixed

b 2

xl INTRODUCTION.

nature, consisting of a portion of the impure blood just
returned from thence, with that which has been aérated
in the lungs. It is clear that the blood is by this me-
chanism but partially changed by the action of oxygen ;
in other words, that the quantity of respiration, speaking
with reference to the physiological meaning of the term, is
comparatively small. Hence arises the circumstance that
these animals have what is called cold blood ; for as it is
from respiration that the blood derives its heat, and the
temperature of the body is thereby sustained in animals
which have more perfect respiration, it follows that where
this function is but imperfectly performed, the animal
heat, muscular force, and all the other functions dependent
upon respiration, will be diminished. In the fishes the
same effect is produced by different means. These are
likewise cold-blooded animals ; and in these, also, this pecu-
liarity arises from the small quantity of respiration which
they enjoy ; but the phenomenon which in the reptiles is
produced by the transmission of a part only of the blood
through the respiratory organ at each contraction of the
heart, is in the fishes effected by the different medium
through which the oxygen is presented to the blood; for
im the latter, although the whole of the blood is sent
through the branchia, or gills, the quantity of oxygen,
held in solution in the water which bathes them, is so
small as to effect but a partial change in the condition of
the blood. In one case the circulation is complete, but
the respiration is aquatic, and therefore imperfect ; in the
other, the application of the air to the blood is immediate,
but the circulation is incomplete. In the Mammalia, on
the contrary, where the heart is double, and the circula-
tion consequently complete, combined with atmospheric
respiration, the animal heat is considerable; and in birds

INTRODUCTION. Xlll

it is even higher still, from the increased quantity of
respiration produced by numerous air-sacs and _ cells
pervading all parts of the body, and communicating with
the lungs.

From the structure of the Reptilia, it follows that they
possess but little power of sustaining muscular action ; and
although capable in many instances of moving rapidly for a
short time, it is only when they are supplied with that
degree of temperature externally which is denied them
from an internal source, that they are capable of exerting
any energy at all; and if deprived of external heat to a
certain extent, they pass into a state of torpidity or hiber-
nation.

The respiratory and sanguiferous systems being thus
circumscribed in their extent, and the nervous and mus-
cular powers in a corresponding degree limited, we are
prepared to find that the other functions of the body are
no less tardy in their operation. Digestion is carried on
only in proportion to the degree of temperature of the
surrounding atmosphere ; and even under the most favour-
able circumstances is extremely slow. Many Serpents are
more than a fortnight after taking their food before the
undigested remains are voided, during which period they
usually fast. Ifthe temperature in which they are placed
be very low, it is greatly retarded, and during hibernation
it ceases altogether; for I have known a Tortoise which
had fed largely upon grass immediately before it became
torpid, retain the grass unchanged in the stomach during
the whole of the winter, so that on opening the body after
its death, which took place immediately on its awaking in
the spring, and before it had any access to food, the sto-
mach was found filled with a large quantity of grass
wholly undigested.

XIV INTRODUCTION.

The phenomena of hibernation are amongst the most re-
markable and interesting which occur in the history of ani-
mals. That the cold-blooded creatures of which we are
now treating, with their limited respiration and cireula-
tion, their entire dependence upon external heat to carry
on their functions, and the consequent diminution of all
their powers, and of their expenditure also, during a low
degree of external temperature, should be able to sustain
life for an almost indefinite period, under peculiar cireum-
stances, is not, perhaps, so surprising. But this simple
torpidity is very different from that true hibernation to
which many of the warm-blooded animals are liable. The
bats, the squirrel, the dormouse, the marmots, and many
others, may be cited as examples. It is sufficient in
reference to the present class to observe, that in temperate
or cool climates, the whole of them retire during the winter
to some place of concealment ; the land Tortoises to exca-
vations which they often dig for themselves ; the fresh-
water Tortoises to holes in the muddy banks, or to the
mud at the bottom, of their native lakes or rivers; the
Lizards and Serpents to holes in trees, under stones,
beneath dead leaves, or in similar hiding-places, where
many species, especially of the latter order, congregate
in large numbers, and are found closely entwined together.
Here they pass the winter in a state of almost lifeless re-
pose, the functions of life so nearly suspended, that none
of the external signs of its existence are visible. The
circulation is extremely slow, the respiration apparently
altogether stopped, digestion absolutely suspended. The
return of the genial warmth of spring calls them again into
action. The circulation is restored, the blood is again
fitted for its various offices by the return of regular respi-
ration, the functions of the digestive organs are again

INTRODUCTION. XV

performed, and the animal resumes its former habits, with-

out having undergone any material change.

I have already hinted at the difficulties which exist in
forming a consistent and unobjectionable arrangement of
these animals. The order of Testudinata and that of Lo-
ricata,—the former comprising the Tortoises and Turtles,
the latter the Crocodiles and their congeners,—are natural
and well defined; nor is there any sufficient ground for
identifying the latter group with the true Saurians. On
the other hand, the Saurians and the Ophidians are so
nearly related in all important points of their structure,
and pass into each other by such insensible gradations,
that I cannot but think that Merrem was correct in view-
ing them as constituting a single order, to which he gave
the name Sguamata, from the nature of their dermal co-
vering. If the true Ophidians, or Serpents, be considered
as ordinally distinct from the Lizards, the intermediate
group to which Mr. Gray has given the name Saurophidia,
must also constitute a distinct order; but I am rather dis-
posed to follow Merrem’s arrangement. Adding, therefore,
the Enaliosaurians of Conybeare, including the great fossil
reptiles, the Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri, as a group
probably intermediate between the Tortoises and Croco-

diles, we have the following orders of this class ;—namely,
Testudinata, Enaliosauria, Loricata, and Squamata, the
last including the true Saurians, the true Serpents, and
the intermediate group, the Saurophidia of Gray. For
convenience sake, however, and because the present work
is scarcely a fit arena for the discussion of disputed
methods of arrangement, I prefer adopting, for the present
popular purpose, the more usual one to which I have before

alluded.

XV1 INTRODUCTION.

The first of the orders, the Testudinata, includes the
Tortoises and Turtles. Although we have no species
of this order inhabiting the British islands, yet as there
have been occasionally stray individuals of the marine
forms brought to our coasts, and even taken alive, and
as many species of the land and fresh-water forms are
often kept living in our gardens and ponds, it may not be
uninteresting or inappropriate to offer a short account of
their general organization and habits. Their structure, as
has been already observed, differs in a very remarkable
manner from that of the rest of the class. The arrange-
ment of the osseous system has already been glanced at ;
and it offers the most remarkable tendency to consolida-
tion and strength, to the sacrifice of facility and variety of
motion. In the terrestrial forms especially this character
is carried to an extreme degree; the vertebra, the ribs,
and the sternum are all closely and inseparably united
into a compact solid case, in which the whole of the
viscera, and, during rest, the head, limbs, and tail are
covered and protected. So strong is this shell, both from
the thickness and solidity of its parietes, and from the
arched form of the superior portion, that in many species
it will bear immense pressure without injury. In certain
genera, however, this bony box, although still exceedingly
strong, has certain parts which are rendered moveable, for
the still more complete protection of the enclosed organs.
Thus in the genus Kinixys, a terrestrial form, the lumbar
portion of the carapace, or upper part of the case, is
moveable, so that the animal has the power, when the
limbs and tail are withdrawn within it, to close that move-
able piece against the posterior part of the sternum; and
in the genus Pyzis the anterior portion of the sternum
exhibits this peculiarity in a still more remarkable degree.

INTRODUCTION. XVll

But it is in the genera Terrapene, Kinosternon, and Sterno-
thenus, all of them aquatic or palustrine forms, that this
peculiarity is the most obvious. In the first-named genus
especially, the sternum is formed of two distinct valves,
moveable upon a single cartilaginous hinge, and capable of
completely closing the bony box, of which it thus forms a
double lid; within this admirable shelter the animal is
wholly included, and, if disturbed, resists, by means of its
powerful muscles, every attempt to open it. The general
form of the carapace, or upper part of the shell, is also
admirably adapted to the habits of the different groups of
which this order is composed. In the land Tortoises it is
strong, compact, elevated, and regularly arched, for the
purpose of resisting the numerous injuries to which their
localities, and especially their extreme slowness of move-
ment, must otherwise expose them. In the aquatic species,
on the contrary, it is remarkably flattened, especially in
the genus 7’rionyx, which has also the margins of the ribs
free towards their extremities, and the whole body covered
with a coriaceous skin, which is free at the edges, and
serves the same purpose as the flattened lateral fins of the
flat fishes, such as the sole and plaice,—namely, to enable
them to scuttle themselves under the mud or sand at the
bottom of the rivers or lakes in which they reside. These
last have also a very long and retractile neck, by which
they are able, when thus concealed, to seize fish which
pass immediately above them, by suddenly stretching out
the neck, and then as suddenly withdrawing it. The land
Tortoises, which are exclusively vegetable feeders, are slow
in their motions, the limbs being clumsy and club-shaped.
The fresh-water forms are all of them carnivorous; the
neck is therefore long, the legs lax and flexible, and the
feet palmated to enable them to pursue their prey with con-

XV1ll INTRODUCTION.

siderable rapidity ; whilst the marine Turtles have them
modified into true paddles, the toes being entirely conceal-
ed by hard scaled skin. ‘These modifications of form are
very interesting, as evincing an admirable adaptation of a
general plan of structure to the varied habits of the dif-
ferent groups.

The jaws of all these different forms are covered with a
hard, sharp, horny beak, the lower portion of which shuts
within the upper, and the portions of food are cut or
snapped off, as it were, on the principle of shears. The
aquatic species aid the separation of their food, which they
seize with their jaws, by tearing it by means of their long
and sharp claws. They thus pursue, seize, and tear in
pieces living frogs, and other aquatic reptiles, fish, and even
young water birds; and so forcible and violent is their
bite, that I have known a stick of half an inch in diameter
at once snapped asunder by the Jaws of a snapping Turtle,
Chelydra serpentina; and a specimen of T'rionya, lately in
the possession of Mr. Cross, of the Surrey Zoological Gar-
dens, snapped off the finger of a sailor when on his voyage
to this country.

The whole of the Testudinata are strictly oviparous, and
the egg is covered by a calcareous shell, like that of birds ;
the eggs of the land Tortoises, as well as those of the
marine Turtles, are generally round; but those of the
fresh-water genera are usually more or less oval or ellip~
tical. The multitudes of fresh-water Tortoises in some
districts is astonishingly great, and their eggs form a
lucrative article of commerce from the quantity of oil which
is obtained from them.

It has been already stated that we have no indigenous
species of this order. There are, however, on record seve-
ral well-authenticated instances of marine Turtles, of two

INTRODUCTION. X1x

distinct species, having found their way to our coasts, one
of them probably from the Mediterranean, and the other
from the American shores across the Atlantic. The former
is the Coriaceous Turtle, Spargis Coriacea, called by
Merrem by the specific name of Mercurialis, on account of
its having been in ancient times dedicated to Mercury, by
whom its shell was believed to have been employed in the
construction of the lyre. Of this species two specimens
are recorded by Borlase in his History of Cornwall, as
having been caught in the mackerel nets off that coast in
July 1756, the detail of which is given in the description
of the species.

I have been induced to enter thus at large into the his-
tory of this tribe of reptiles, because, although we do not
possess any British species, there is every reason to believe
that several of the fresh-water species, both of Europe and
North America, might be naturalized in the southern parts
of England. The Terrapene Europea, the common lacus-
trine Tortoise of the Continent, is found in Portugal, Spain,
Italy, and Greece, in France, and even in Prussia. These
Tortoises are eaten by the inhabitants of all the countries
in which they are found ; and as they live principally upon
small fish, the air-bags of which they reject, it is said that
the people are wont to judge of the quantity of Tortoises to
be found in a lake or pond, by the number of air-bags
which are seen swimming on the surface of the water. I
once placed in a small pond, in which were some of these
fresh-water Tortoises, six small living fish; and on the
following morning I found the air-bags of five of them
floating on the surface of the water, and the sixth fish still
alive. In some parts they are fed upon grains, and on
other nourishing food, and fattened for the table. There
are also several American species of mys, or fresh-water

XX INTRODUCTION.

Tortoise, which will bear a greater degree of cold than that
of most of our winters, without perishing ; and it is cer-
tainly desirable that a wholesome and agreeable food, like
that afforded by some of these, should. not be lost to us,
if the species can be easily perpetuated and multiplied in
our climate.

Of the third order of Reptiles, to which the term Zori-
cata has been given, on account of the peculiar coat of hard
mail with which all the species are covered, we have
happily no indigenous example, nor would any of them
bear the cold of our climate. The Crocodiles and Alliga-
tors of both worlds, and the Gavials of India, constitute
this order. They are distinguished from the true Saurians,
or Lizard tribe, by several important characters. Of these,
the most tangible and obvious is that upon which the name
of the order is founded; the covering of the whole of the
back part of the neck, body, and tail, with distinct series
of bones, of moderate size, embedded, as it were, im the
substance of the skin, and covered externally with a thick
cuticle. These dermal bones are usually furnished with a
crest, which renders them exceedingly strong, and they
altogether form a panoply of defence which can resist the
attacks of the most powerful enemies of whatever kind.
These animals are carnivorous, taking their prey generally
in the water, but retiring to the shore to devour it, which
they often defer until it has become half putrid. For the
reasons given above, I do not think it necessary to enter
into particulars respecting the structure and history of
these animals. They can never become of local interest
to us, as they are not made subservient to any purpose of
utility to man, nor can they be naturalized in our latitude.

The true Saurians are characterized by the existence of
both anterior and posterior extremities, and of a moderate

INTRODUCTION. XX1

number of perfect and moveable ribs, by an entire covering
of scales, which in most families are imbricated, in others
flat and with their margins in mutual contact. The eyes
are furnished with eyelids; the ear in some protected by a
simple valve, in others by scales rather larger than the
surrounding ones, and in others the tympanum is on a level
with the surface of the skin.

In this group are found some of the most active, and
certainly the most beautiful of the reptile class. Many of
them are tinctured with the most brilliant colours; and as
they are called into the greatest activity in the bright sun-
shine, nothing can surpass the splendour of their ever-
changing hues. Most of the Saurians are insectivorous ;
but there are some, as the Iguanas, which live principally
on fruit. The activity of the smaller insectivorous Lizards,
when in pursuit of their food, is exceedingly curious and
interesting. They watch with all the caution of a cat, and
dart upon their prey with the quickness of lightning.

In the act of seizing their food, however, they must
necessarily be exposed to some danger from the noxious
qualities of the insects which they indiscriminately attack.
The following fact would seem to indicate that even in our
own temperate climate, an insect not generally recognized
as poisonous may inflict a fatal injury upon its Saurian
enemy :—Some years since, I had in my possession two
living specimens of the beautiful little green anolis of the
West Indies, a Lizard about the size of our own smallest
species. I was in the habit of feeding them with flies and
other insects, and having one day placed in the cage with
them a very large garden spider, Hpeira Diadema, one of
the Lizards darted at it, but seized it only by the leg.
The spider instantly ran round and round the creature’s
mouth, weaving a very thick web around both jaws, and

XXil INTRODUCTION.

then gave it a severe bite in the lip, just as this species of
spider usually does with any large insect which it has
taken. The lizard was greatly distressed, and I removed
the spider, and rubbed off the web, -the confinement of
which appeared to give it great annoyance; but in a few
days it died, though previously in as perfect health as its
companion, which lived for a long time afterwards.

It has been already observed that the passage from the
Lizard tribe to the Serpents is by a succession of very
gradual modifications of developement. In the lower forms
of the Saurian group, the body becomes gradually elongated
and serpentiform: its ribs increase in number, the anterior
and posterior limbs are removed farther and farther from
each other, and diminish in size and power, exhibiting in
some forms the anterior, and in others the posterior only,
external to the integument, until at length they cease to
appear, being merely rudimentary, and wholly covered by
the skin. Of this transition state we have an example in
the common Slow-worm, Anguis fragilis, which, though
completely Serpentiform in its external appearance, yet
possesses the minute rudiments of limbs entirely concealed
under the integuments. Notwithstanding this general form
of the Serpent, they have not the expansible jaws of the
true Serpents: nor is the character of the ears the same,
the tympanic membrane not being superficial, nor the
auditory passage covered by integument ; the eyes, also,
like those of the Lizards, are furnished with moveable eye-
lids, which are wholly wanting in the true Serpents.

Upon these characters, and several others of minor
importance, Mr. Gray founded his intermediate order of
Saurophidians, to comprehend all the transition forms ;
but it may, perhaps, be objected that the group is not suf-

ficiently defined to sanction such a distinction. On the

INTRODUCTION. XX

other hand, it must be confessed that it is difficult to recon-
cile the separation of the Ophidians from the Saurians,
according to the arrangement of Cuvier, who, to effect
this, has been obliged to place some of these intermediate
genera in the former, whilst he retains others in the
latter group. Upon the whole, as I have before observed,
it appears more consonant with nature to consider, with
Merrem, that the whole of these three groups constitute
but a single order.

The movements of the Saurian reptiles are effected prin-
cipally by means of their feet, and in some of the higher
forms, exclusively so; but as they descend towards the
more elongated forms of the Scinks, and other genera, in
which these organs become more and more subordinate,
they are greatly assisted by the lateral motion of the
bodies, different parts of which are brought into alternate
contact with and pressure upon either the roughness of the
ground, or the shrubs and herbage through which they
pass. A comparison of the progression of these, however,
and even of the Slow-worm, with that of the true Snakes,
will show that the latter only employ the free terminations
of their ribs as organs of locomotion. In these the ribs
serve absolutely and perfectly the function of feet, and
with the exception of their being covered with integument,
their action is exactly that of the multitudinous feet in the
Scolopendra or Julus, the whole series of ribs coming into
contact in succession. At the same time, it is upon the
lateral motion of the body and the alternate lateral pres-
sure of successive portions of it, that the Serpents mainly
depend for the rapidity of their progression.

It appears almost necessary to apologise for offering this
sketch of some of the most important phenomena in the
structure and habits of the different groups of existing

XXIV INTRODUCTION.

Reptilia. I have been induced to do so by the consider-
ation that very little is popularly known respecting them,
and by the eagerness with which information of this nature
is sought by many, whose habits and. opportunities forbid
any personal investigation into the depths of anatomical
and physiological science.

INDEX.

The systematic names are printed in italics.

Adder, 61.

Anguis fragilis, 41.
Blind-worm, 2.
Bufo calamita, 126.

4 mephitica, ab.

» Rubeta, ib.

4 terrestris, 115.

Pe “ feetidus, 126.

45 vulgaris, 117.
Chelonia imbricata, 1.
Coluber Berus, 62.

5» ceruleus, 59—69.

» chersea 2, 62.

a Dumfrisiensis, 60.

», natria, 50.

» torquatus, ib.
Coriaceous Tortoise, 12.
Coriudo coriacea, ib.
Coulewwre & Collier, 50.
Crapaud commun, 115.
Dermatochelys porcata, 12.
Eft, 143.

Evet, 7b.
Frog, common, 89.

» edible, 110.

4 green, 2b.

4» Scottish, 102.
Grenouille rousse, 89.
Lacerta agilis, 18—35.

4» aquatica, 143.

on anguiformis, 13.

Ps arenicola ib.

Lacerta di Simeo, 18.
45 maculata, 34, 144.
» caedura, 35.
> _ palustris, 129.
4, stirpium, 16.
» —- VIVIPAT', 35.
Lacertus vulgaris, 34.
Lézard des Souches, 18.
Lissotriton palmipes, 154.
os punctatus, 143.
Lizard, brown, 144.
5 common, 34.
45 nimble, 7.
peesand, Le.
» scaly, 35.
4) Viviparous, 34.
5 warty, 129.
Molge palustris, ib.
45 punctata, 144.
Natria torquata, 49.
5 vulgaris, 50.
Natter-Jack, 126.
Newt, greater, 129.
» small, 143.
4» (smooth), palmated, 154.
3 = common, 1438.
45 (warty), common, 129.
is - strait-lipped 140.
Orvet commun, 41.
Pelias Berus, 61.
Rana aquatica, 89.
», Bufo, 115, 126.

XxIv | RNY )

Rana esculenta, 110.
» fusca, 89.
» Rubeta, 126.
» Scotica, 89.
s» clemporaria, ib.
>» wridis, 110.

Salamandra aquatica, 129.

Bs cristata, ib,

ob palmipes, 154.
a punctata, 144.

vittata, 153.
Salamandre Suisse, 154.
4s palmipéde, ib.
Slow-worm, 4].
Snake, common, 49.
» Dumfries, 60.
» Tinged, 49.
Sphargis coriacea, 12.
» Mercurialis, ib.
Testudo coriacea, 12.
» @mbricata, 1.
» Mercurii, 12.
Toad, common, 115.

INDEX.

Toad, Natter-Jack, 126.
Triton aquaticus, 144.

s, Bibronii, 140.

» cristatus, 129.

+» marmoratus, 140.

» palmipes, 154.

» palustris, 129-144,

» punctatus, 144,

» vittatus, 152.
Tropidonotus Natrix, 50.
Turtle, coriaceous, 12.

»» hawksbill, 1.

» leathery, 12.

» trunk, 2.

Viper, black, 62-74.

» blue-bellied, 6269.

» common, 61.

3 ted O25) 7a.
Vipera Berus, 62.

» chersea, 59—67.

5 communis, 62.

» vulgaris, ib.
Zoctoca vivipara, 34.

BRITISH REPTILES.

TESTUDINATA. CHELONIAD.

Genus, Chelonia. Brongn.

Generic Character. —Dorsum large, depressed, somewhat heart-shaped, covered
with horny plates; feet depressed, fin-shaped.

HAWK’S-BILL TURTLE.
Chelonia imbricata. Schweig.

Specific Character.—Dorsal plates thirteen, free at the margins, imbricated.

Testudo imbricata, LINN. Syst. Nat. p. 350, sp. 2. Scuneip. Schildkr. p. 509.
Penn. Faun. Ind. p. 87. Larr. Hist. Rept. I. p. 50.
Daup. Hist. Rept. II. p. 39.

Chelonia imbricata, ScHwx1G. Prod. in Archiy. Keenigsb. I. p. 291, et 408.
Gray, Syn. Rept. p. 52, sp. 1. Bisron, Hist. Rept. II.
p. 548, t. xxv. f. 2, Bonar. (Pr. Musign.) Syn. Chelon,

Hawksbill Turile, Brown, Jamaic. p. 463. Carsss, Nat. Hist. Carol. II.
Paoos) tarlix,

2 CHELONIAD.

Tux single and purely accidental occurrence of a bird
or of a fish within the range of our guns or our nets, has
always been deemed sufficient warrant to constitute the
wanderer fair game to our native Faunists. It may, per-
haps, be doubted whether the important and interesting
subject of the geographical distribution of animals can
receive much illustration from thus swelling the catalogue
of local species by the addition of such as owe their place
in our Fauna rather to the caprice of the winds or the
waves, to the violence of a storm, or the temptation of an
unusual chase after their food, than to any regular and vo-
luntary migration: nor does there appear any very sufficient
reason for distinguishing between those species of birds, for
example, which are driven over to our coasts by the imme-
diate force of the tempest, and those which are brought
from the same countries, and wafted hither by the same
impelling power, but through the medium of the sails of a
ship, and secured by the safeguard of a cage. However,
as such is now the established custom of naturalists, I have
determined on availing myself of the means thus offered
me, of adding to the interest of this little work, by admit-
ting, as all previous British Faunists have done, the two
species of stray Turtles which have accidentally been found
on our coasts, although certainly neither the one nor the
other can claim to be considered as indigenous.

The family of Curtontapm, to which both the species
which have thus obtruded themselves into our Fauna
belong, is composed exclusively of marine Turtles. The
most generally interesting species are the common es-
culent Turtle, Chelonia Mydas, well known as a delicious
article of food, and the present species, which furnishes
the beautiful substance known by the name of Tortoise-
shell.

HAWK’S-BILL TURTLE. 3

The structure of the whole family is admirably adapted
to their marine habits. The body is flattened so as greatly
to facilitate their progress through the water; the feet are
formed into the most perfect oars, by means of which they
are propelled with considerable force and velocity; “ the
Green and Hawk-billed in particular,” says Audubon, ‘“ re-
mind you, by their celerity, and the ease of their motions,
of the progress of a bird in the air.” The head is so placed
upon the neck as to allow of the nostrils being readily
raised above the surface for the purpose of occasional
respiration. The nostrils, also, are furnished with a fleshy
valve, which is closed when the animal is submerged, but
opens when required for respiration.

The food of the Green Turtle consists of marine plants,
especially the sea-wrack, Zostera marina; and they graze
at the bottom of the water, coming at intervals to the
surface to breathe. As this mode of taking their food
renders them very liable to swallow, with their aliment,
a considerable quantity of sea-water, there is a beauti-
ful structure lining the interior of the csophagus, by
which this circumstance is effectually obviated. This
consists of a great number of horny pyramidal bodies,
with which the whole interior of the csophagus is fur-
nished, all of them directed backwards towards the sto-
mach; by which means, although the food and the water
together can be readily swallowed, yet, when the stomach
is contracted for the purpose of regurgitating the water,
the food itself is retained. “The Hawk-billed species
feeds on sea-weeds, crabs, various kinds of shell-fish, and
fishes; the Loggerhead mostly on the fish of conch shells
of large size, which they are enabled, by means of their
powerful beak, to crush to pieces with apparently as much

ease as aman cracks a walnut. The Trunk Turtle feeds
B 2

4 CHELONIAD A.

on molluscea, fish, crustacea, sea-urchins, and various mare
plants.” *

Their jaws are strong, and firmly articulated. The
horny beak, which so much resembles that of some birds
as to have led to the application of the name of Hawk’s-
billed Turtle to the species about to be described, is very
hard, but the edge is sharp, in most cases toothed, and that
of the lower jaw is received into a groove of the upper; so
that the food taken between them is not only cut by the
external sharp edges passing each other, but bruised by the
pressure of the lower mandible against this upper groove
and its internal margin. When not engaged in feeding,
they are often seen floating without the slightest move-
ment on the surface of the sea, sometimes at considerable
distance from the land, apparently asleep; for they are at
such times easily approached and taken.

The annual resort of the various species of marie Tur-
tles to the land for the purpose of depositing their eggs, is
one of the most interesting points of their history. On the
Island of Ascension, on the shores of the Gulf of Florida,
and in many other places, innumerable multitudes of Tur-
tles arrive at a period of the year differing somewhat in the
different species, but in all during the early part of the
summer. They resort to their favourite breeding-places
from various parts, some even from a great distance; and
there is reason to believe that each individual returns year
after year to the same place. The following details of this
operation, from the graphic pen of my friend Audubon, are
so interesting that I offer no apology for inserting them
without mutilation.

‘On first nearing the shore, and mostly on fine calm

moonlight nights, the Turtle raises her head above the

* Audub. Amer. Ornith. Biog. II. p. 374.

HAWK’S-BILL TURTLE. 5

water, being still distant thirty or forty yards from the
beach, looks around her, and attentively examines the
objects on shore. Should she observe nothing likely to
disturb her intended operations, she emits a loud hissing
sound, by which such of her many enemies as are unac-
customed to it are startled, and so are apt to remove to
another place, although unseen by her. Should she hear
any noise, or perceive any indications of danger, she in-
stantly sinks, and goes off to a considerable distance; but
should everything be quiet, she advances slowly towards
the beach, crawls over it, her head raised to the full
stretch of her neck, and when she has reached a place
fitted for her purpose, she gazes all around in silence.
Finding ‘all well,’ she proceeds to form a hole in the sand,
which she effects by removing it from wnder her body with
her hind flappers, scooping it out with so much dexterity
that the sides seldom if ever fallin. The sand is raised
alternately with each flapper, as with a large ladle, until it
has accumulated behind her, when, supporting herself with
her head and fore part on the ground fronting her body,
she, with a spring from each flapper, sends the sand
around her, scattering it to the distance of several feet.
In this manner the hole is dug to the depth of eighteen
inches, or sometimes more than two feet. This labour I
have seen performed in the short period of nine minutes.
The eggs are then dropped one by one, and disposed in
regular layers, to the number of a hundred and fifty, or
sometimes nearly two hundred. The whole time spent in
this part of the operation may be about twenty minutes.
She now scrapes the loose sand back over the eggs, and so
levels and smooths the surface, that few persons on seeing
the spot could imagine anything had been done to it. This
accomplished to her mind, she retreats to the water with

6 CHELONIADA.

all possible dispatch, leaving the hatching of the eggs to
the heat of the sand. When a Turtle, a Loggerhead for
example, is in the act of dropping her eggs, she will not
move although one should go up to her, or even seat
himself on her back; for it seems at this moment she
finds it necessary to proceed at all events, and is unable to
intermit her labour. The moment it is finished, however,
off she starts ; nor would it then be possible for one, unless
he were as strong as a Hercules, to turn her over and
secure her.”*

Each Turtle has generally three Jayings in the season,
at intervals of two or three weeks. The eggs are perfectly
round, varying from two to three inches in diameter. The
external membrane is flexible, very white, and contains
a considerable quantity of calcareous matter. The yolk
forms in general an exceedingly delicate article of food ;
but that of the Loggerhead Turtle has a somewhat musky
flavour.

When the young ones are hatched, which takes place
from a fortnight to three weeks after the eggs are depo-
sited, according to the temperature, they have only that
central part of each scale or plate formed which is termed
the areola; and all the concentric layers which in ad-
vanced age are seen to constitute the principal part of the
plates are added afterwards at their margins. The shell is
soft, and affords them but little protection from the attacks
of their numerous enemies. In their attempts to gain the
water for the first time, numbers of them fall a prey to
birds of various kinds; and of those which are fortunate
enough to escape from this danger, probably the greater
part are seized and devoured by shoals of fish and of
crocodiles.

* Audub. Amer, Ornith. Biog. IT.

HAWK’S-BILL TURTLE. 7

The different species of marine Turtles are found in all
the seas of hot climates, and they are only seen in con-
siderable numbers within a certain distance from the land.
About the shores of several of the West India Islands,
“Cuba, Jamaica, St. Domingo; in the Atlantic, at the
Cape de Verde and Ascension Islands; again, in the
Indian Ocean, at the Isle of France, Madagascar, the
Seychelles, &c.; at Vera Cruz, in the Gulf of Mexico,
and at the Sandwich and Gallapagos Islands, in the
Pacific,” * they are found in the greatest abundance.

It is unnecessary, and it would be out of place here, to
enter at large upon the particular history of the different
species. Every one knows the value of the Green Turtle,
as it is commonly called, as an article of luxurious and
most nutritious food; and all the species afford a large
quantity of oil, which is employed for various purposes.
But it may not be uninteresting to offer a few observations
on the particular utility of the species which is now to be
described.

The Hawk’s-billed Turtle, Chelonia imbricata, is not
generally used in food, as its flesh is far from being either
so wholesome or agreeable as that of the Green Turtle ;
but the large scales with which it is covered are so much
employed in the arts, both for purposes of ornament and
utility, as to constitute no unimportant object of mer-
chandize. It is the substance commonly called Tortoise-
shell. ) For the following short account of the mode of
obtaining and preparing it, I am principally indebted to
the admirable History of Reptiles by my excellent friends
M. Dumeril and M. Bibron.+

Although the greater number of the whole order of Tes-

* Dumeril et Bibron, Hist. des Rept. II. p. 520.
+ Hist. des Rept. IL. p. 524, et seq.

8 CHELONIADA.

tudinata have the back and sternum covered with horny
plates, or scales, it is almost exclusively those of the present
species which are applicable to the purposes just named.
The thirteen plates with which the whole upper part of the
shell is covered, are in fact much thicker and stronger, as
well as more beautifully clouded in colour, than those of
any other species; and as they lie one over the other like
the tiles of a house, so that at least one-third of each
overlaps the one behind it, they are much larger in com-
parison with the size of the individual. The scales, or
plates, are in the first place separated by the application of
heat. They are sold to the manufacturers in the rough
state, in which they are uneven, fragile, opaque, and dirty;
and it is the first object of the artificer to obviate these
defects. The uneven surface, the irregular curvature, the
unequal thickness of different parts, have all to be cor-
rected ; and not only can these objects be readily effected,
but the substance can be rendered ductile, compressible,
capable of receiving any impression, of being carved,
moulded and polished, and even extended by soldering
pieces together by means of their own substance reduced
to powder. The whole of these processes are performed
by means of heat.

The uneven curvature is first of all to be removed, and
the plate rendered perfectly flat. This is effected by im-
mersing it in hot water, and then allowing it to cool under
heavy pressure between smooth blocks of wood, or metallic
plates. The surface is then rendered smooth, and the
thickness equal, by scraping and filing away the rough and
prominent parts. In this way each plate receives an equal
and smooth surface. But it is in many cases desirable to
employ larger pieces than can be obtained from single
plates, and two pieces are then united together in the

HAWK’S-BILL TURTLE. 9

following manner :—The edges are bevelled off to the space
of two or three lines, and the margins when placed together
overlap each other to that extent. They are then pressed
together by a metallic press, and the whole is submitted to
the action of boiling water; and by this means the two
pieces are so perfectly soldered together, as to leave no
indication of the line of union. By the application of heat,
also, the tortoise-shell may be made to receive any impres-
sion by being pressed between metallic moulds.

No portion of this precious substance is lost or useless.
The filings and powder, which remain after these and the
other processes to which the shell is submitted, are placed
with any small fragments in metallic moulds, and by means
of pressure, exercised whilst they are exposed to the heat of
boiling water, they are formed into plates of any thickness
which may be required.

Such is a very hasty and general sketch of the manner
in which this beautiful substance is rendered available to
the many purposes of ornament and use in which it is
constantly employed.

The history of this species as a British visitant is eon-
fined to the mere notice of its accidental occurrence on
three different occasions on the shores of Great Britain.
Sibbald states that he received the shell of one which
“came into Orkney ;” Dr. Fleming says, ‘I have credible
testimony of its having been taken at Papa Stour, one of
the West Zetland Islands;” and the late Dr. Turton has
mentioned an instance of one which “in the year 1774
was taken in the Severn, and placed in the fish-ponds of
the author’s father, where it lived till winter.”

It is found about the islands and coasts both of the
Indian and Atlantic Oceans, where it occurs in consider-

able abundance; its flesh is said to be unpalatable, but

10 CHELONIADA.

the eggs are considered a great delicacy. It does not
generally attain to more than one-third the size of the
Green Turtle.

The shell of this species is depressed, rather longer in
proportion to its breadth than the other species, and some-
what heart-shaped. It is covered with thirteen imbricated
plates, each of which in the young state has the apex
pointed; but in older individuals this is entirely worn
away. ‘The margin has plates, which are prominent at the
posterior and exterior angle, especially those towards the
hinder part, so as to form sharp and strong denticulations.
The under side, or sternum, has twelve plates; and there
are two carine which run through its whole length from
the anterior to the posterior margin; these ridges, how-
ever, are worn off by age; but they were very evident in
the individual from which the present figures were taken,
and which I had alive for a short time in my possession.
The head is rather elongated, flattened above, and com-
pressed at the sides in front of the eyes, so that the beak
is less arched than in any other species of the genus. The
head is covered with fourteen scales, to which, in zoological
language, different names are given from their situation.
The upper and lower jaws are covered with a horny
beak, as before described; they are not denticulated at
the edges; they are sharp, and scarcely sinuous; and the
apex, both in the upper and lower, is sharp and hooked,
that of the under shutting within that of the upper. The
feet do not materially differ from those of the species
generally, of the marine form, as before described. The
tail is conical, and is so short, that it does not extend
beyond the posterior margin of the shell.

The colour of the upper parts is yellow, marbled or

splashed with a deep rich brown; the plates of the head

HAWK’S-BILL TURTLE. 11

are brown, often margined with yellow; the under parts
of the whole animal are yellowish white; and in the
young individual there is a spot of black occupying the
areola, or nucleal spot of the four posterior pairs of
sternal plates.

12 CHELONIAD A.

TESTUDINATA. CHELONIAD.

Genus, Sphargis. Merr.

Generie Character.— Body wholly without scales; covered with a leathery
skin. Feet without nails.

LEATHERY TURTLE.
TRUNK TURTLE.
Sphargis coriacea.

Testudo Mereurit, Gesn. Aquat. II. p. 1134.
» coriacea, Linn. Syst. Nat. I. p. 350, sp. 1. Scunerp. Schildk.
p- 512. Daun. Hist. Rept. II. p. 62, t. xviii. f 1.
Tort. Brit. Faun. p. 78.
Sphargis 55 Gray, Syn. Rept. p. 51. Dumer. et Bisron, Hist.
Rept. II. p. 560, t. xxiv. f. 2. Bonar. Faun. Ital.
JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 290.
Mercurialis, Merr. Amph.p. 19. Russo, Hist. Nat. Eur. Merid, ITI.
p. 85. Scuxec. Faun, Japon. Chelon. p. 6, t. 1, 2, 3.

”

Cortudo coriacea, Fem. Brit. Anim. p. 149.
Coriaceous Tortoise, | PENNANT, Brit. Zool. IIT. p. 7, t. i.
Turtle, Borxase, Nat. Hist. of Cornw. p. 285, t. xxvii. f. 4.

Dermatochelys porcata, WAGL. Syst. Amph. p. 133, t. i. f. 1—23.

LEATHERY TURTLE. ’ 13

Tuts remarkable species is distinguished from all the
other marine Turtles by the absence of horny plates upon
the body, head, and limbs; which, instead of them, are
covered by a tough leathery skin. In this respect it bears
the same relation to the family to which it belongs, that
the different species of Trionyx do to the fresh-water Tor-
toises most nearly allied to them. This skin is perfectly
smooth in the adult ; but in young specimens it is covered
with hard tubercles. The head is more acute than in the
other marine species: it is somewhat triangular when
viewed from above, the part anterior to the eyes being
narrowed; the jaws are of immense strength, and the
edges very sharp; the upper one has three remarkable
notches, one in the centre, which is angular, and one on
each side at a short distance from the former, which are
rounded. The lower jaw is scarcely sinuated at the
margin, and the point is very acute, and somewhat hook-
ed, corresponding with the central notch of the upper.
The nostrils are small, and perfectly circular. The eyes
rather large, opening nearly vertically, particularly in the
younger specimens. The view of the head here given is

from a very large individual, of which the head and extre-
mities are in my collection. The carapace, or dorsal shell,
has seven distinct raised carine, or ridges, which in the
adult are sharp, and slightly toothed: in the young they

14 CHELONIAD A.

are rounded, and composed of a number of round obtuse
tubercles. These seven ridges are equidistant, and consist
of one along the median line of the back, one on each
margin of the shell, and two on each side between the
dorsal and the marginal one... The anterior paddles are
remarkably long, being more than twice the length of the
hinder ones, and somewhat falcate; the latter, however,
are generally broader than the former. They are covered
with a perfectly smooth skin. The tail is acute, much
compressed at the sides, and extends only to the extreme
point of the dorsal shell. The following figures of these
parts are from the specimen above mentioned.

The young individual differs from the adult more con-
siderably in this species than in any other species of the
order with which I am acquainted. Some of the peculiari-
ties of the former age have already been alluded to; in
addition to which may be mentioned the more full and
rounded form, the larger head, the larger and more ex-
panded eye, and the existence of five ridges on the ster-
num. The eye opens almost vertically, which gives a

LEATHERY TURTLE. 1d

peculiar and strange aspect to the young animal. The
figure at the head of this description is from the plate in
the Prince of Musignano’s “ Fauna Italica;” and was
taken from a very young individual.

The colour of the adult is generally a full brown, with
numerous pale yellowish spots; in the very fine specimen
in my collection, the under side of the extremities and
throat are white, with black irregular spots, rendering
them, in fact, pied.

This species, which is stated by Mr. Audubon to resort
to the Tortugas, or Turtle Islands of Florida, is later than
the other species in arriving thither for the purpose of
depositing its eggs. The average number laid by it,
according to the same authority, may be three hundred
and fifty in two sets. It is less cautious than the other
species in choosing the places for this important operation.
“ Tts food consists of mollusca, fish, crustacea, sea-urchins,
and various marine plants.”

‘“‘The lyre,” says Sir John Hawkins, “is the prototype
of the fidicinal or stringed species” of instruments, “and is
said to have been invented about the year of the world
200 by Mercury, who, finding on the bank of the river
Nile a shell-fish of the Tortoise kind, which an inundation
of the river had left there, and observing that the fish was
already consumed, he took up the back-shell, and, hollow-
ing it, applied strings to it.”* This application of the
dorsal shell of a Tortoise to the construction of a musi-
cal instrument by Mercury is of very general reception
amongst the classical writers, and is even mentioned by
Homer in his Hymn to Mercury. To what species of
Tortoise the individual belonged, which was destined to be
the means of so much enjoyment to mankind in all subse-

* Harmonia Manualis, II. p. 29.

16 CHELONIADA.

quent ages of the world, it would be useless now to
inquire: but it is not improbable that the seven ridges on
the back of the present species may have given rise to the
belief that it may have been the favoured animal; particu-
larly as seven strings are by some of the ancient writers
assigned to the lyre; for Amphion is said to have “ built
the seven gates of Thebes in compliment to the seven
strings of his lyre.” This legend is neither overstrained,
nor improbable; for the margin of the shell would afford a
very good fastening for the strings, and the arched vault
of the back would answer the purpose of a good reverbe-
rating cavity.

This species is found in the Mediterranean, in the At-
lantic, the Pacific, and the Indian Oceans. My own
specimen, above referred to, was from the latter locality.

The history of its occurrence on the shores of Great
Britain is as follows: — Borlase, in his History of Corn-
wall, mentions “two of a vast size which were caught im
the mackerel nets off the coast of Cornwall, a little after
Midsummer 1756. The larger weighed eight hundred
pounds, the lesser nearly seven hundred.” Pennant states
that “a third, of equal weight with the first, was caught
on the coast of Dorsetshire, and deposited in the Leverian
Museum.” This specimen, if I mistake not, is the one now
in the British Museum. ‘‘The late Bishop of Carlisle in-
forms me,” proceeds Pennant, “that a Tortoise was taken
off the coast of Scarborough in 1748 or 1749. It was
purchased by a family then resident there, and several
persons were invited to partake of it. A gentleman, who
was one of the guests, told them it was a Mediterranean
Turtle, and not wholesome; only one of the company ate
of it, who suffered severely, being seized with dreadful

sa 4: oe ieee
vomiting and purging.

LEATHERY TURTLE. 1%

The following are the dimensions of the parts in my pos-
session of the large specimen to which I have before referred,
the total length of which was eight feet.

In. Lines.
Length of the head : : 11
Greatest breadth of the head

Breadth between the orbits

Length of the fore-paddles

Greatest breadth of the fore-paddles .
Length of the hinder-paddles_ . .
Breadth of the hinder-paddles ;
Length of tail . 5

_—

as Ate a Seed
wonuouowvo

WDAocnacrary

Supposing the neck to have ae Sia ‘acbea the upper
shell would have been nearly six feet and a half in length.

Although such is the meagre total of our claim to indi-
genous species of the Testudinata, there appears to be no
obvious reason why many of the land and fresh-water
species should not be naturalized, or at least bred in a
domesticated state, in our southern counties. Every one
knows that the T'estudo Greca, or common land Tortoise,
will live for a great number of years in this country with-
out any particular care; nor do I doubt that the common
fresh-water species of Europe, T'errapene Europea, might
be readily introduced here, as well as several species of
Emys from the United States. They would probably re-
quire some little attention for the first few winters; but I
believe they may in a short time be completely acclimated.

18 LACERTAD A.

SQUAMATA.
(SAURIA.) LACERTAD/.

Genus, Lacerta. Linn.

Generic Character.—Throat with a distinct collar. Nostrils situated towards
the outer and inferior margin of the nasal scuta. An osseous superorbital
lamina. Temples covered with scuta. Scales of the back, orbiculo-polygonal,
slightly carinated. Palate toothed.

SAND LIZARD.
Lacerta agilis. Linn.

2 Lacertus terrestris anguiformis, Muxrerr, Pinax, p. 161. Ray, Syn. Quad.
p. 264.
Lacerta agilis, Linn. Fn. Suec. 284.— I, cura Rerz. 289.—Syst. Nat. I.
p. 363, n. 15. Mutt. Zool. Dan. Prod. p. 36, n. 299.
Merr. Syst. Amph. p. 66, sp. 13. C. L. Bonar, Faun.
Ital. cum Icon.

SAND LIZARD. 19

Lacerta stirpium, Daup. Rept. III. p. 155, t. xxxv. f. 2. Ducks in An. des
Se. Nat. XVI. p. 376, sp. 3, t. Ixxvi. f. 1,2. JENYNS,
Brit. Vert. p. 291.
» arenicola, Daun. 1.c. p. 230, t. xxxviii. f. 2.
» dnguiformis, SHEPPARD, in Linn. Trans. XVI. p. 51.
Lézard des Souches, Daup.1.c. M. Epw. in An. des Se. Nat. XVI. p. 65. 83.
twit, 4, eft. vin. & 1) 2.
Lacerta di Linneo, C. L. Bonar. 1. c.

Because it may appear to many persons not accustomed
to the use of what are commonly termed essential generic
or specific characters, that many of those phrases by which
such characters are expressed are confined in their signifi-
cation, and the characters themselves of slight value and
importance, it may not, perhaps, be useless, before we
proceed to describe the species, to offer a few words
explanatory of their employment, especially with reference
to those groups of animals on which the present work pro-
fesses to treat. It has always appeared to me that generic
distinctions should, as far as possible, be limited to such
differences of structure as indicate a difference in the habits
of the animals. Thus, the absence in one species, and the
presence in another, of an organ or part of an organ, the
application of which is of obvious or probable moment in
any of the habits of life,— as, for example, the degree of
development of the thumb in some genera of monkeys, or
the modification of the carnivorous propensity in allied
groups of carnivora, evidenced by the greater or less degree
of acuteness in the tubercles of certain teeth,—will form
good grounds for such a distinction. Now it is evident
here that what is called the generic character is merely
the phrase expressive of some point of structure belonging
to the whole group in which a certain habit obtains. In
many cases even, the most convenient, or the only tangible
characters of the group may have no reference whatever to

the peculiarity of habit which forms the legitimate founda-
CLD

a

20 LACERTAD &.

tion for the generic distinction. This will be found to
be the case, for instance, in some of the genera of saurian
reptiles, and even in the generic distinction of our only two
native species; the genus Zootoca, to which our common
Lizard belongs, being characterized, as regards habit, by
the circumstance that the species of which it is composed
are ovo-viviparous. This is a character to which the
structure of any of its external organs bears no possible
relation; but as it is found that the species having this
habit is externally characterized by some peculiarity in the
form and situation of certain little scales about the head,
having, however, no possible reference to the habit in
question, such peculiarities are employed as convenient and
permanent artificial characters by which it may be distin-
guished.

It must, however, be acknowledged that there are cases
in which a numerous group is found to consist of several
divisions, each of them distinguished by some point of
form or structure, the use or object of which is absolutely
unknown or unintelligible to us, and in which the habits, as
far as we know them, are not conspicuously different.
For the sake of convenience in some cases, and of con-
sistency and harmony of system in others, these groups
may, notwithstanding this uncertainty, receive with pro-
priety a distinctive generic appellation; but, wherever it is
possible, generic groups ought only to be formed where
Nature has herself pointed out their distinction.

The generic and specific characters of the Lacertine
group have only of late years received the degree of atten-
tion which they deserved. The divisions and subdivisions
of this numerous family had been either overlooked, or
so arbitrarily defined as to be detected with difficulty, and
their value had been greatly misunderstood. The employ-

SAND LIZARD. DF

ment of minute characters in the structure and proportions
of the different parts of the body, the relative dimensions
of the limbs, and the form and size of certain important
scales, has, however, of late produced a greater degree of
certainty, and more accurate definition, not only in the
relation of the groups, but also in the characters of the
species. One of the most useful attempts to reduce the
characters of the Lizards to a tangible and certain rule,
dependent upon differences which, though apparently tri-
fling in themselves, are of great value as being constant
and easily detected, was made by my friend Dr. Milne
Edwards, in a valuable paper in the sixteenth volume of
the “ Annales des Sciences Naturelles;” and Wagler has
since that carried the principles of generic subdivision to
an extent perhaps scarcely warranted by nature. Upon
this point, however, it would be out of place here to dwell.

The external parts from which the artificial characters
of the present group of reptiles are founded, are principally
the plates covering the head, the
scales of the collar, the pra-anal
scale, those in which the femoral
pores are placed, the abdominal
plates, and the scales of the back
and tail. In order to comprehend
these characters, I here introduce

an outline of most of these parts.

In the first figure, the plates of i oy (i
the upper part of the head of the PSs we
species about to be described are 7

exhibited, and they are thus designated: —a, rostral;
6, nasal; c, internasal; d, fronto-nasal; ¢, frontal; /, an-
terior palpebral; g, posterior palpebral; /, fronto-parietal ;

2, inter-parietal; 4, parietal; 7, occipital.

22 LACERTADA.

In the next figure, the under parts of a variety of the
game species are exhibited in outline, to shew the collar,
the abdominal plates, the pre-anal plate, those which are
perforated by the femoral pores, and the scales of the tail.

In the whole of the sub-family of Lacertina the head is
covered by the number of plates designated above, differ-
ing only in some very trifling modifications of form. The
abdomen is covered by broad plates, as seen in the figure,
not imbricated, or lying one over another, as are the scales
of the back and tail, but applied to each other at the mar-
gins; and these are arranged in longitudinal rows. There
is in all the species a distinct collar, composed of several
scales, larger than those which cover the throat, and quite
detached from the plates which cover the breast, which
they loosely overlay. The scales of the back and sides are
small, and imbricated. Those of the tail are always ar-
ranged in distinct and even whorls, are elongated and nar-
row, becoming more so towards the termination of the tail.
The femoral pores, as they are termed, exist also in all the
family. They consist, probably, of very small follicular

SAND LIZARD. 23

glands, each placed in a scale, the middle of which is
pierced by the opening of the follicle. In some the scale
is very little larger than the pore, and appears almost like
a minute tube; in others the scale is larger and triangular.
The use of these pores is not known. They vary exceed-
ingly in number, even in the same species: in this respect,
therefore, they afford no distinctive characters.

In some species, in addition to the teeth which are
placed in the margins of the upper and lower jaws, there
are also a few very minute ones in the back part of the
palate, which may be readily felt by a pin or the point of
a penknife. The existence or absence of these palatine
teeth would, perhaps, scarcely be admissible alone as a
generic distinction ; but when combined with others, and
associated also with a marked difference of habit, it may
be admitted as a valuable, because a tangible and perma-
nent character. It is on this account that I have em-
ployed it as one of the means of generic discrimination
between our two English Lizards.

I now proceed to the consideration of our first species.

It has been well remarked by the Prince of Musignano,
whose knowledge of the European Vertebrata in general,
and of the Reptilia in particular, 4s undoubtedly superior to
that of any other naturalist, that the Linnean term agilis
has been applied by the Zoologists of different countries to
that species of Lizard which is best known or most com-
mon in their own. Thus the Podarcis muralis, the com-
mon Lizard of Italy and of France, has been so called by
Italian and French writers; and our own little indigenous
species, so frequent in almost all parts of England, which I
shall presently describe under its proper appellation of
Zootoca vivipara, has hitherto received the same name from
every British naturalist who has written on the subject.

24 LACERTAD A.

Not even when the present handsome species was distin-
guished as indigenous to this country, was it suspected that
the name applied to the former was erroneous as so ap-
plied, and still less that it might, in fact, appertain to this
new addition to our Fauna.

The slender knowledge possessed by Linneus of the
species of Reptilia, and his total ignorance, consequently,
of the value of specific characters in this class, led him to
include amongst the supposed varieties of his Lacerta agilis
several which have since been ascertained to be not speci-
fically only, but generically distinct ;—at least, according
to the rigid principles of subdivision adopted by several of
our more distinguished modern Erpetologists. As, how-
ever, the typical form of his species thus named was in-
digenous to Sweden,—for he refers in his great standard
work, the “Systema Nature,” to the ‘“‘ Fauna Suecica” to
fix its identity,—it only remains for us to ascertain what is
the common species of that country, to fix this doubtful
and obscure synonymy.

It appears quite clear that neither of the two species
which I have before mentioned as having erroneously re-
ceived the name of Lacerta agilis can possibly be the one
originally intended by the great Swedish naturalist, as
neither of them appears to be indigenous to that country.
But it is not only highly probable, but becomes a demon-
strated fact, that the present species is the type of the L.
agilis of Linneus, when it is considered that it is a native
of Sweden, and that the short allusion—for it is nothing
more—in the ‘ Fauna Suecica” is perfectly applicable to
it. The specific character given by Linneus both in the
* Fauna Suecica” and the “Systema Nature” is vague,
and equally applicable to the whole of the genus Lacerta

as now constituted; but he proceeds to name two varieties

SAND LIZARD. 25

in the following manner :—‘“ (3 Lacertus viridis Aldrovand.
y Lacertus dorso punctis albis duplici serie. Var. B
rarissima, nec mihi ipsi obvia.” Here we have the com-
mon and the rarer green varieties of our own species in-
dicated, at least, with great probability. But in the more
recent edition of the same work by Retzius, the characters
are still more decidedly applicable; and the expression
“Jaterum ocellis nigris, pupillé alba,” is decisive. This
opinion is also corroborated by the short description given
by Otho Frederick Miiller, in his ‘‘ Prodromus Zoologiz
Danice,” of two varieties of the indigenous Lacerta of
Denmark, which he also terms Z. agilis. The following
are his words :—‘“ b. supra maculis nigris punctis linearibus
[albis* | inscriptis, subtus absque maculis. c. Supra cine-
reofusca, punctis albis nigrisque contiguis.” These are
very accurate descriptions of the markings of different in-
dividuals of the present species; even the green variety,
which occurs also in this country, was not unknown to
Miller, who adds, “ viridem quoque in sylva Frederichs-
dalensi reperi.”

From these considerations it becomes necessary to re-
form the nomenclature and synonymy of our English
Lizards, by restoring the name of agilis to the present
species, to which it originally belonged,—by abolishing
altogether that of st¢rpium, adopted by Mr. Jenyns from
the French writers, by whom it had been applied to this
species,—and in the case of the other and more common
indigenous species, by substituting for the name L. agilis,
hitherto applied, that of Zootoca vivipara, which really
belongs to it. The first naturalist who has demonstrated
that the species now under consideration is the true Lin-

* The word here is originally “xigris;” but this is evidently a misprint.
§ 3 Vrs 5 y I
Spots of black could not be said to be marked with black dots.

26 LACERTAD A.

nean agilis, is the Prince of Musignano, who, in his beau-
tiful “‘ Fauna Italica,” has thus restored its true name,
with the additional Italian appellation of Lacerto di Linneo.
I have lately examined many specimens of both species in
company with that distinguished naturalist, and have thus
had the views now stated amply confirmed.

As a British species, there appear to be on record several
more or less obscure allusions to it amongst former writers.
Merrett, in his ‘“‘ Pinax,” mentions the common or vivipa-
rous species as “ L. terrestris vulg. ventre nigro maculato ;”
and the present one is probably intended by the phrase
“ L. terrestris anguiformis, in ericetis.” These words, with
the enumeration of the different species of Newts, are
copied verbatim by Ray without acknowledgment. This,
however, is but an obscure and uncertain allusion. The
first description of the species by any British Zoologist is
that by the Rev. Revett Sheppard, in the sixteenth volume
of the Linnean Transactions, in the year 1802. This gen-
tleman adopts the specific name anguiformis from Ray,
with whom he appears to believe it to have been original,
as he was probably unacquainted with the ‘‘ Pinax” of
Merrett. The Lizard to which his description refers could
not have been a variety of the common species, as the
latter never acquires half the length of one specimen seen
by Mr. Sheppard, which, he says, was upwards of a foot
long; and this, although certainly an extraordinary, is not
an incredible length for an individual of this species, as I
have myself occasionally seen them approaching that length,
measured from the nose to the extremity of the tail. Even
the general length of Mr. Sheppard’s specimens was
‘*seven inches and upwards.” It is true that the cha-
racters and descriptions given by this author are vague and

unsatisfactory, as they refer merely to colour; but the

SAND LIZARD. 27

dimensions can scarcely admit of a reasonable doubt on
the subject. The locality mentioned by him as its most
usual resort,—namely, on heaths,—is also, as far as it goes,
a confirmatory fact.

It is to Mr. Jenyns, however, that we owe the only
clear and satisfactory published description of this species
as a native of Britain; and his account of its characters is
as admirable for its correctness and perspicuity as any of
the other descriptions of that accomplished author.

It is from the immediate vicinity of my own native place
that the specimens which have hitherto formed the sub-
jects of more recent observation have been obtained. I
have been familiar with it from my childhood; and its
frequency in various parts of the sandy heaths around
Poole and its neighbourhood gave me, when young, nume-
rous opportunities of observing the remarkable difference of
size between this and the other native species ;—from
which circumstance I had, even then, often suspected that
they were distinct. Subsequently, when the prosecution
of the study of Erpetology might perhaps have enabled me
to distinguish them, the opportunity of observing them had
ceased, until Mr. Jenyns, having, through Mr. Yarrell, ob-
tained specimens from Poole, seized, with his usual acumen,
upon the point of distinction, and speedily discovered the
identity of this species with the ZL. stirpium of Daudin, of
Milne Edwards, and of Dugés.

I shall be readily pardoned this long and somewhat dry
investigation of the synonymy of this species by every
systematic Zoologist who appreciates the importance of
precision on this subject; and I now proceed to give a
short history of its habits, as far as I have had an oppor-
tunity of observing them.

This beautiful species is found in the neighbourhood of

28 LACERTADA.

Poole in somewhat different situations. Its general abode
is on sandy heaths, where it is frequently seen crossing the
small bye-paths with considerable swiftness, although it is
certainly less rapid in its movements than the smaller and
more common species. The transient glance which is thus
obtained of it, “‘ together with its viperine appearance and
colours,” and the size and length of its body and tail, may
easily have deceived Mr. Sheppard, who says that he has
often mistaken it for the Viper when hastily passing it.
But it is also occasionally seen on the sunny sides of green
banks, basking in the sun’s rays, and retreating quickly
upon the approach of any intruder. Mr. Sheppard men-
tions that he had ‘‘once or twice observed it near marshes;”
and it is occasionally seen in the small village of Ham-
worthy, near Poole, in moist situations. It has been stated
by a gentleman of my acquaintance, that the brown va-
rieties are confined to the sandy heaths, the colours of
which are closely imitated by the surface of the body, and
that the green variety, which I have already slightly al-
luded to, frequents the more verdant localities just men-
tioned. Be this as it may,—and it is a statement which
at present I can neither confirm nor refute,—it is certain
that these varieties, mentioned by Linneus and seen by
Miiller, do exist in the place I have named, and within a
comparatively short distance.

It is more timid and far less easily rendered familiar
than the beautiful Green Lizard (L. viridis) of Guernsey
and the South of Europe. This latter species may be
readily tamed, and taught to come to the hand for its food,
and to drink from the hollow of the palm of any one to
whom it is accustomed. It will lie coiled up between the
two hands, enjoying the warmth, and not offering to
escape. But it is very different with the present species,

SAND LIZARD. 29

which appears not to be susceptible of any such attach-
ment. It will indeed attempt to bite any one who handles
it, which I have never known to occur with the Z. viridis.
When in confinement, it ceases to feed, conceals itself with
extreme timidity when approached, and ultimately pines
and dies.

The female lays her eggs, to the number of twelve or
fourteen, in hollows in the sand, which she excavates for
the purpose, and having covered them carefully with sand,
she leaves them to be hatched by the solar heat. It is
probable that the eggs are laid a considerable time before
they are hatched, as I have found the female containing
numerous eggs of the full size, and apparently ready to be
deposited, and yet without the vestige of an embryo within
any of them: there is, therefore, every reason to conclude
that this species never brings forth her young alive, as is
always the case with the common Lizard.

It is a northern species, rarely occurring so far south as
Italy, but sufficiently common in the northern parts of
France and the middle districts of the European Continent,
and extending, as we have seen, as far north as Sweden
and Denmark.

It varies exceedingly, like most others of the Lacertine
group, in colour and marking. The most common colour
of the upper parts is a sandy brown, with obscure longi-
tudinal fascie of a darker brown, and a lateral series of
black rounded spots, each marked with a yellowish-white
dot or line in the centre. There is often in this most
common variety more or less of green on the sides. The
following figure is of a very beautiful individual in my col-
lection, which was taken in the neighbourhood of Poole by
my relative, Dr. Bell Salter, of Ryde: it is of a rich brown
colour above, with a rather lighter fascia on each side near

30 LACERTADA.

the mesial line, and a number of black ocellated spots,
arranged almost continuously in somewhat irregular oblique
fasciee, each of these spots having a white pupil. There

are in this, as in the one described by Mr. Sheppard, about

four black spots on the head. This specimen has a

remarkably short tail, and some other structural peculiari- ;
ties, which led me at first to suppose that it belonged to a

different species; but I am now satisfied that it ss merely

a variety of the present one. The comparative shortness of
the tail probably arises from its having been mutilated

and restored.

Another variety is that to which I have before alluded,
in which the upper parts are more or less of a green hue.
In some this colour is brighter and hghter than in others ;
but the usual colour is a rather dull brownish-green. Not

SAND LIZARD. 31

only is it very probable that the passages which I have
quoted from Linneus and Miiller indicate this variety, but
I cannot help believing that all the accounts we have on
record of the supposed occurrence of the Green Lizard, Z.
viridis, in Ireland and in England, are to be referred to in-
dividuals of the same variety of our present species; which
were probably of unusually vivid hues, and observed under
all the advantages of bright sunshine. Such may doubtless
be the explanation of the “ beautiful green Lacerte” seen
by Gitbert White, ‘on the sunny sand-banks near Farn-
ham.” * The Prince of Musignano, in his “* Fauna Italica,”
figures a variety with the whole of the back of a dull
brick-red colour. The under side is usually of a whitish or
greyish colour, varied with light green towards the sides,
about the collar, and under the tail, and a few black dots
scattered about those parts.

In its general form this Lizard is much thicker and less
gracile than the more common species. The head is rather
more obtuse, the body more rounded, and the limbs
stronger and shorter. The relative proportions of the tail
and the body vary exceedingly in different individuals. As
a general rule, it may be stated that the length of the head
and body together is to that of the tail as three to four
nearly ; but in one specimen in my collection the propor-
tions are nearly equal, and in that which is figured above,
page 30, the tail is even considerably shorter than the head
and body; but, as has been observed before, this may have
occurred from the mutilation and reproduction of that part.
The legs are so short, that when the posterior ones are

* J find, by referring to my lamented friend Mr. Bennett’s edition of the
“Natural History of Selborne,” that I have appended the following note to
page 114:—“ These were probably unusually large and bright individuals of
the L. stirpiwm, now ascertained to be indigenous to this country.”

32 LACERTADA.

brought forwards and the anterior placed backwards, par-
rallel to the side of the body, the hinder toes do not extend
further than to the wrist of the anterior ones; in which
respect it differs remarkably from the other species. In
this, as in others, however, the abdomen of the female is
proportionally larger than that of the male. The third and
fourth toe of the fore foot are nearly of equal length; Mr.
Jenyns says the former is the longer, but in some specimens
the reverse is the case. The plates of the head* are similar
in their general form and proportions to those of most
others ofthe genus. The nostrils are placed near the outer
or inferior margin of the nasal plates, and nearly half-way
between the anterior and posterior margins. The frontal
plate is elongate pentagonal; the anterior angle obtuse;
the lateral margins parallel, but slightly contracted about
the middle; the inter-parietal pentagonal, and with a de-
pressed point in the centre; the occipital very small. The
upper eyelid with a series of very minute scales, and the
whole surface of the lower covered by similar ones; the
space between the eye and the auditory passage covered
with plates, of which the two superior, lying immediately
under the parietal, are much the largest. The scales of the
upper parts of the body are round or polygonal, and slight-
ly, though distinctly, carinated. The abdominal plates in
six rows, the middle series narrower than the adjoining
ones. Pre-anal plate single, of a broad pentagonal form ;
the anterior margin bordered by four pairs of plates.
Femoral pores varying in number from eight to fifteen on
each side. In the specimen figured at page 30, there are
eight on one side, and nine on the other. The pores are
in this species placed in flat triangular scales; whilst in

* See the figure in page 21.

SAND LIZARD. 33

Zootoca vivipara the scales are so round and small as
almost to form tubes. The tail is covered with numerous
distinct whorls, according to Dugés from fifty to eighty, of
elongated scales, which are longer, narrower, and more dis-
tinctly carinated towards the extremity. The number of
whorls varies considerably in different individuals.

The following are the dimensions of one of moderate

size :—
In. Lines.
Total length : : : : sO 2
Length of the head. : ‘ : 0 9
35 body 2 5
ss tail 4 0
Breadth of the head 0 7

34 LACERTADA.

SAURIA. LACERTAD ff.

Genus, Zootoca. Wag.

Generic Character. — Nostrils, collar, superorbital lamina, as in the genus
Lacerta. Temples covered with adpressed scales. Scales of the back elongated
and hexagonal. Palate toothless.

VIVIPAROUS LIZARD.
NIMBLE LIZARD. COMMON LIZARD.

Zootoca vivipara.

Lacertus terrestris vulgaris ventre nigro maculato, MERRetTT, Pinax, p. 169.
Ray, Syn. Quad. p. 264.

VIVIPAROUS LIZARD. 35

Lacerta agilis, | BERKENH. Syn. 1. p. 56. SHEpparp, in Linn. Trans. VII.
p. 49. Fem. Brit. An. p. 150. Jznyns, Brit. Vert.
p. 292.
» vivipara, Jacq. Noy. Act. Helv. I. p. 33, t. i.
Zootoca on WaGL. Syst. Amph. p. 155.
Scaly Lizard, Penn. Brit. Zool. III. p. 21, t. ii.
Mas.
Lacerta edura, SHEPPARD, |. c. p. 50.

Enoven has been said in the account of the former
species on the subject of the nomenclature and synonymy
both of that and of the present subject. Ihave there
attempted to shew that the Linnean name agilis has been
hitherto improperly applied to this common species, and
that it belongs to our other indigenous Lizard. It remains
now only to say a few words on the identity of the present
one with the Lacerta vivipara of the younger Jacquin.
An examination of the figure in that author’s paper will
shew that this synonymy is correct; and it is entirely
confirmed by the fact of the ovo-viviparous character of
our species. The following graphic and interesting account
I copy from the paper referred to; and as the work is
comparatively little known in this country, I make no
apology for thus giving it in detail. It is an additionally
interesting circumstance that this worthy son of so distin-
guished a father was only eleven years old when these
observations were made.

“In excursu botanico in Alpes vicinas, cum parente
optimo, circa finem Julii preteriti instituto, obtulit sese
mihi forte fortuna in monte Schneeberg, Lacerta preegnans,
quam prehensam, ut servarem, capsule inclusi: preter-
lapso duorum dierum spatio cum hance iterum aperirem,
en! apparet illa onere, quod gestaverat, liberata, ac editis
sex lacertis juvenculis stipata; ovorum in capsula reli-
quorum vestigia ne minima quidem hac licet sollicite ex-

cussa, deprehendere licuit ! quod eo magis mirabar, quo &
D 2

“

36 LACERTAD A.

Cu. Motiero, System. Nat. t. iii. p. 77, traditam noveram,
(quasi res esset in omnibus lacertarum generibus constanter
observata) lacertas ova, eaque cute seu membrana vestita,
magno numero excludere solere; cum autem neutiquam
omnino vero sit simile, tam exiguo duorum dierum spatio,
non ova tantum deponi, sed et ipsas ex his excludi potuisse
lacertulas, non sine ratione concludere pesse mihi videbar,
hasce vivas 3 matre in lucem editas fuisse.” Mr. Gray, in
his Synopsis of Reptiles in Griffith’s Animal Kingdom,
refers Jacquin’s Lacerta vivipara to the L. muralis of
Daudin and Merrem (Podarsis muralis of Wagler): this
mistake, however, Mr. Gray has subsequently corrected.

It is in consonance with the remarks which I have ven-
tured to make on the real value of generic characters, and
the legitimate grounds for generic distinctions, that I have
followed Wagler in assigning a distinct appellation to the
present animal. Choosing minute and unimportant points
of external structure as what may be termed its artificial
character, it is in the peculiarity of its habits and physio-
logy that I rest its claim for separation from the forms
most nearly allied to it. But for this interesting pecu-
liarity, —I mean the fact of its being ovo-viviparous, — I
should certainly have retained it as a species of Lacerta, as
Mr. Gray has done. Although, therefore, I have adopted
Wagler’s division of the Lacertine group as far as regards
our own indigenous species, I have done so upon very
different grounds; and should not be disposed to follow
him in many of the artificial divisions which he has made
throughout the whole class of Reptilia.

This agile and pretty little creature is the common inha-
bitant of almost all our heaths and banks in most of the
districts of England, and extending even into Scotland: it
is also one of the few reptiles found in Ireland. On the

VIVIPAROUS LIZARD. 37

Continent its range does not appear to be very extensive :
it is not found in Italy, nor, I believe, in France, and is
very probably confined in a great measure to our own
latitude. Its movements are beautifully graceful as well
as rapid; it comes out of its hiding-place during the warm
parts of the day from the early spring till autumn has far
advanced, basking in the sun, and turning its head with a
sudden motion the instant that an insect comes within its
view, and darting like lightning upon its prey, it seizes it
with its little sharp teeth and speedily swallows it. Thus
it will often take a great number of the smaller insects,
preferring those of the dipterous order; though it will not
refuse many of the coleoptera or orthoptera, if they be not
too large.

Instead of depositing her eggs in the sand to be hatched
by the warmth of the sun, as is the case with the former,
the female of the present species retains the eggs within
the oviduct until the young are ready to leave them, and
thus they are produced alive. As in all the ovo-vivipa-
rous reptiles, the covering of the egg is very thin, and
merely membranous. In this respect they differ from
those which deposit their eggs before the embryo is formed.
In the latter case a more efficient protection is necessary,
and the covering is either calcareous, as in the Tortoises
and Crocodiles, or of a substance resembling parchment, as
those of the Snakes and most Lizards. In the Viper,
which also produces its young alive, the covering, as in the
present animal, is extremely thin and very easily torn ;
and there is reason to believe that the laceration of this
membrane and the emancipation of the young take place
in and are occasioned by the very act of parturition.

As the young ones are occasionally found with the
mother, there is some reason to believe that these little

38 LACERTADA.

animals are not wholly devoid of the instinct of parental
care and tendance; but it is scarcely probable that the
exercise of this feeling is ever very powerful, or that it
endures for any considerable period. The young when
brought forth are fully formed, and capable of running
about, and very shortly afterwards of taking their own
food. They vary in number from three to six.

Although I have alluded to the sun’s influence as being
the means of hastening the evolution of the embryo in the
oviparous reptiles, it is not to be concluded that the same
source of warmth is unnecessary in the present and similar
instances. The only difference is, that in the ovo-vivipa-
rous species the solar heat is communicated to the embryo
through the medium of the mother; and hence we often
see the pregnant female about the month of June con-
stantly basking in the sun, and lying in such a position as
to expose the body most fully to his influence. Every
one who has watched the habits of our native reptiles
must have seen the same circumstance in the gravid
female of the Common Viper; and may have observed
how much more reluctantly and tardily she leaves the
genial spot than the male.

This little Lizard is much smaller and more gracile
in its form than the LZ. agilis. The head is more depress-
ed, rather narrower, and the muzzle more acute. The
arrangement and relative size of the plates on the head
do not differ very considerably ; but those of the temples
are much smaller and more numerous in the present than
in the former. The collar consists of nine plates, which
are nearly equal; the abdominal plates in six rows, the
middle and outer ones narrower than the intermediate.
The dorsal scales are narrower, more angular, and the
carina less distinct than in Z. agilis: those of the tail are

VIVIPAROUS LIZARD. 39

nearly similar. The feet are more slender, and the toes
longer in proportion. The femoral pores, which vary less
in number than in the other, being generally nine or ten,
are placed in scales which are very different from the
corresponding ones in LZ. agilis. Instead of being broad,
flat, and triangular, and much larger than the orifice of
the pores, as in that species, they are small, rounded, and
so little larger than the pores, as to appear merely as the
sides of atube. This is a very tangible character, though,
I believe, not before observed. ‘‘ The following,” says
Mr. Jenyns, “are sexual distinctions :—In the male, the
tail and legs are longer in proportion to the body; the
former is nearly (in some specimens quite) two-thirds of
the entire length: the hind-leg applied to the side of the
abdomen reaches to, or passes beyond, the carpus of the
fore-foot ; the ante-anal lamella is shorter, and broader, or
more transverse; the under side of the base of the tail is
flattened with a slight longitudinal depression of the
middle just behind the vent; during the season of sexual
excitement, the base of the tail is much dilated at the
sides, appearing swollen.* In the female, the abdomen is
longer and the tail shorter, the latter being often not more
than half the entire length: the hind-leg barely reaches to
the tips of the claws of the fore-foot ; the ante-anal lamella
is longer in proportion to its breadth, and of a more de-
cided hexagonal or pentagonal form; the base of the tail
is rounded, and never dilated at the sides.” +

The colours and markings of this species vary greatly.
The general ground colour of the upper parts is a greenish

* Tt is in this state undoubtedly the Lacerta edura described by Mr. Shep-
pard in the seventh volume of the Linnean Transactions, as having the tail
bulging out a little below the base, as if it had been cut off and set on again.

This was first detected by Mr. Gray, and published in the Proceedings of the
Zoological Society for 1654. + Jenyns, Brit. Vert. p. 293.

40 LACERTAD Al.

brown, with a dark brown line down the middle of the
back, which is often somewhat interrupted; a broad fascia
extends parallel with this on each side, commencing be-
hind the eyes, and extending to a greater or less length
down the tail; between these and the former are often
one or more rows of black dots, and similar ones occur
in many individuals in the broad lateral fascia. . The
under side of the body and base of the tail in the male
are bright orange, spotted with black: in the female these
parts, as well as the tail, pale greyish green, without
spots.

The usual length is from five inches and a half to six

and a half: the head usually about five lines.

BLIND-WORM. 41

SQUAMATA

(SAUROPHIDIA.) fo ANGUID/E.

Genus, Anguis, Linn.

Generic Character.—Body and tail cylindrical, obtuse; scales smooth, imbri-
cate, nearly equal above and beneath; head covered with about nine larger
plates; tympanum concealed; legs none; bones of the shoulder, the sternum,
and pelvis rudimentary, and wholly concealed.

BLIND-WORM. SLOW-WORM.
Anguis fragilis. Linn.

Specific Character.—Silvery grey, a black longitudinal line extending down
the back. Scales rounded and plain.
Anguis fragilis, Linn. Syst. Nat. I. p. 392. Muu. Zool. Dan. Prod. p. 36,
sp. 306. Larr. Rept. IV. p. 209. Daun. Rept. VII. p. 327, t.
Ixxxvil. f. 2. Murr. Syst. Amph. p. 79. Waceu. Syst. Amph. p. 159.
Gray, Syn. Rept. in Griff. An. Kingd. p. 74. Fem. Brit: An. p. 155.
JEnyns, Brit. Vert. p. 295. Cx. L. Bonar. Faun. Ital. c. icon.

Orvet commun, Cuv. Rég. An. 2 Edit. IT. p. 70.
Blind-worm, PENN. Brit. Zool. III. p. 36, t. iv. No. 15.

42 ANGUIDA.

Tue group to which the genus Anguis belongs is one
of the most interesting in its relations of all the forms of
Reptilia. Under external characters considerably differ-
ing from each other,—some possessing the limbs and loco-
motion of true Lizards, and others wholly devoid of
external members and moving like true Serpents,—there
are in Mr. Gray’s order Saurophidia many points of
mutual affinity which prevent the possibility of separating
them from each other. From the well-known family of
the Scinks, or Scincide, with their true legs and five-toed
feet, down to the present species and its immediate con-
geners, every possible gradation is to be found in the
development of the anterior and posterior extremities.
Agreeing, as they all do, in the Saurian character of the
structure of the head, the consolidation of the bones of
the cranium and jaws, and the narrow and confined gape,
so different from these parts in the true Serpents, they
yet approach the latter in the comparative length of the
bodies and in the gradual diminution and ultimate dis-
appearance of the extremities. In the genus Scincus, for
instance, the limbs are already less robust than those of
the true Saurians; the two pairs are also more distant
from each other, in consequence of the greater comparative
elongation of the body. There are as yet five perfect toes
on each foot, which, however, are shorter and more even
in their relative proportions than in the Lizards. These
deviations become increased in the genus Chalcides, and
still more in Seps, which has a very elongated body, the
limbs extremely small, and the toes only four or three
on each foot. In Monodactylus a further reduction takes
place in the development of the limbs, which have dwin-
dled to a mere little undivided finger; they are still, how-
ever, four in number ; but in the genus Bipes the anterior

BLIND-WORM. 43

ones have wholly disappeared, and are found in a rudi-
mentary state under the integument, the posterior ones
constituting only small undivided processes. These also
being removed, the Ophidian form of the present genus,
and those of Tortrix, Typhlops, and others, with all the
Amphisbenide, succeed, in which the bones of the shoul-
der, the sternum, and the pelvis exist in a more or less
rudimentary condition; and lead us towards the true
Snakes, in which all these parts are lost excepting the
rudiment of a posterior extremity, which in the Boa ap-
pears externally in the form of a small horny hook, or
holder, on each side of the vent. In the Serpents, the
gape, too, has assumed its extreme power of extension,
from the bones of the jaws and other parts of the face
being separate ; and in most of them the scales, which in
the former groups were similar on the upper and under
parts of the body and tail, are small and imbricated above,
whilst beneath they assume the form of broad transverse
plates. Such is a very brief account of the beautiful
gradations by which these reptiles pass from the true or
typical Saurian to the Ophidian form; and although, per-
haps, it would be more consistent with analogy to consider,
with Merrem, the whole of the scaled Reptilia as consti-
tuting one great order, yet the union of this interesting
intermediate group, to which Mr. Gray has given the
name Saurophidia from that relation, is a legitimate and
important improvement upon the confusion in which they
were left by Cuvier, who separated animals even of the
same family, and placed some in his order “‘ Sawriens,”
and others in his ‘* Ophidiens.”

The structure of the common Slow-worm, then, necessa-
rily removes it from the Snakes, to which, indeed, it bears

a less close affinity than to some of the Saurians. This

44, ANGUIDA.

structure, and the relations which it indicates, form an un-
answerable argument of the fallacy of the position, that
external characters are in all cases sufficient to indicate
affinities; and shew of how much importance, or rather
how essential, is the anatomical investigation of internal
structure, to enable us to arrive at the true relations of
individual species or of groups.

The Blind-worm, or Slow-worm, by which names this
species is known indifferently in this country, is found in
almost every part of Europe, excepting the extreme north,
and is capable of enduring a much colder climate than
most other reptiles even of our own country. It is found
in Russia, in Poland, in Denmark, Sweden, and Scotland,
as well as throughout the whole of the more temperate
parts of Europe, and as far south as the South of France,
and Italy; but it has not, I believe, been seen in any part
of Africa. It makes its appearance also at an earlier sea-
son than any other of our scaled reptiles. It retires in the
autumn under masses of decayed wood or leaves, or into
soft dry soil where it is covered with heath or brush-
wood, and penetrates to a considerable depth in such
situations by means of its smooth rounded muzzle, and
even polished body.

Its habits are extremely gentle and inoffensive. Even
when handled roughly, it rarely attempts to bite; and
when it is irritated so as to induce it to seize upon the
finger, the teeth are so small as scarcely to make an im-
pression. Of course the opinion that it is venomous is a
mere vulgar error. There are no poison-fangs in the jaw,
either of this or of any other species of the group to which
it belongs. It is so timid, that on being laid hold of or
pursued, it contracts itself so forcibly as to become per-
fectly stiff; and it is then so fragile as to be easily broken

BLIND-WORM. 45

in two either by a blow or an attempt to bend it. Hence
it acquired the specific name of fragilis, applied to it by
Linneus. This property, however, is not peculiar to the
present species: the Glass-snake, as it is called, an Ame-
rican species, has derived its name from a similar circum-
stance. Like the Viper, and, in a less degree, also the
Common Snake, this species is not easily induced to feed
ina state of confinement. I have kept them repeatedly,
and have offered them young frogs and insects, but with-
out being able to induce them to take them. That this
failure, however, was rather due to my ignorance of their
favourite food than to any disinclination on their parts
to feed in captivity, the following note by Mr. George
Daniel in Mr. Bennett’s edition of White’s Selborne suf-
ficiently testifies.

“* A Blind-worm that I kept alive for nine weeks, would,
when touched, turn and bite, although not very sharply ;
its bite was not sufficient to draw blood, but it always re-
tained its hold until released. It drank sparingly of milk,
raising the head when drinking. It fed upon the little
white slug (Limaz agrestis, Linn.) so common in fields and
gardens, eating six or seven of them, one after the other;
but it did not eat every day. It invariably took them in
one position. Hlevating its head slowly above its victim,
it would suddenly seize the slug by the middle} in the same
way that a ferret or dog will generally take a rat by the
loins ; ( it would then hold it thus sometimes for more than
a minute, when it would pass its prey through its jaws,
and swallow the slug head foremost. It refused the larger
slugs, and would not touch either young frogs or mice.
Snakes kept in the same cage took both frogs and mice.
The Blind-worm avoided the water; the Snakes, on the

contrary, coiled themselves in the pan containing water

46 ANGUIDA.

which was put into the cage, and appeared to delight in
it. The Blind-worm was a remarkably fine one, measuring
fifteen inches in length. It cast its slough whilst in my
keeping. The skin came off in separate pieces, the largest
of which was two inches in length; splitting first on the
belly, and the peeling from the head being completed the
last.”

These are interesting particulars; but it is certain that
when in a state of liberty they do not exclusively live upon
slugs, as I have found the remains of insects in the sto-
mach; and they will also feed readily on earth-worms,
even of six or seven inches long, according to the testimony
of M. de Sept-Fontaines, as quoted by Lacépéde.

The last-mentioned Erpetologist, who, however, like his
colleague Buffon, was too credulous of all the stories told
him, declares that this reptile would swallow mice, small
rats, frogs, and toads. This is the statement of a person
who has rather received for granted the assertions of the
ignorant, than taken the trouble to observe for himself. The
fact is, that the wholly undilatable character of the mouth
necessarily restricts it to the deglutition of such prey as can
be received within its narrow and circumscribed gape.

One very interesting point in its habits, is its being ovo-
‘viviparous. Like the last-described species, the Zootoca
vivipara, the young of this animal are hatched before they
come into the world; and it is probable that in this case,
as in that of the species just named, as well as in the Viper
and the Rattlesnake, the rupture of the membrane of the
egg takes place during the parturition. The female is said
to go with young about six weeks or two months: there
can be no doubt, however, that the duration of this period
must depend upon the temperature to which the animal is
exposed. They are produced in June or July. The num-

BLIND- WORM. 4.7

ber of young ones produced at one birth varies from seven
to twelve or thirteen. When brought forth, they are from
eighteen to twenty-two lines in length. The young be-
come very active almost immediately after their birth, and
soon learn to feed upon small soft insects, and probably
small worms, snails, or slugs.

The shedding of its skin is performed by this species in
the same manuer as by most of the true Ophidians. It is,
in fact, taken off in one piece, when the animal is at liberty
and strong enough to effect this; and, like the others, it
leaves the skin, turned inside out, attached to the brush-
wood, or other substance which it has employed to en-
tangle or secure it as it was coming off. It is, however,
stated that in some cases it is inverted only as far as the
vent, and that the tail slips out of its covering “like a
sword out of its scabbard.”

This animal is long, and almost of equal thickness
throughout the whole length, but rather tapering poste-
riorly. The body is slightly tetragonal. The head is
short and small; the eyes small, but very brilliant and
quick; the eyelids perfect, as in the Lizards; the ears en-
tirely covered with the integument; the teeth are very
small, and slightly hooked; the tongue rather broad, not
very extensile, notched at the extremity, but not bifid as
in the true Snakes. Vertex covered with about nine
plates; sides of the head, throat, back, sides, belly, and
tail, all covered with small and nearly equal rounded scales,
which are not carinated. The tail, which is obtuse, is, in
some individuals, not more than half the length of the
body, or even less; but in others, reaches to nearly an
equal length with the head and body. My own observa-
tions would go to prove that this difference in the relative
proportion of these parts may in some measure depend on

AS ANGUIDA.

sex; as we find in the Common Lizard that the body of
the female is longer than that of the male.

The general colour is brownish grey with a silvery
glance ; and there are generally several parallel longitu-
dinal rows of little dark spots along the sides, and, more
constantly, one along the middle of the back. In some
individuals the upper part is wholly without spots or lines;
the sides only being marked with an obscure band. The
belly is of a bluish black colour, with whitish reticulations.
The young ones are very light yellowish grey above; the
sides and belly quite black ; and there is a black dot on
the vertex, and another on the occiput,—which latter
gives origin to a slender longitudinal black line down the
back.

The total length is from ten to twelve, or even fourteen
inches: the head half an inch, or a little more. The vig-
nette gives a representation of the under part i the tail,
and of the upper part of the head.

The Anguis Erya« of Linneus, the Aberdeen Snake of
Pennant, communicated to them by Dr. David Skene, and
said to have been taken in Aberdeenshire, was certainly
nothing more than the common Slow-worm ; and, from the
description, can scarcely be considered even as a variety of
it, so little does it differ, if indeed it can be said to differ at
all, from its normal appearance.

RINGED SNAKE. 49

SQUAMATA. A

(OPHIDIA.) COLUBRIDE.

Genus, Natriz, Laur.

Generic Character.—Head distinct, oblong-ovate, depressed, covered with
scuta ; gape wide ; body very long, nearly cylindrical, slightly depressed ; tail
cylindrical, slender; scales imbricated, placed in longitudinal series, lanceolate,
generally carinated ; abdominal shields simple, arched at the margin; caudal
shields biserial.

RINGED SNAKE.

COMMON SNAKE,

Natrixz torquata. Ray.

Specific Character—Above greyish olive, with several rows of alternate black
spots ; beneath greenish yellow, tessellated with black (sometimes almost wholly
black) ; an interrupted yellow fascia across the neck, followed by two black
spots ; scales lanceolate, acutely carinated ; tail about one-fourth the length of
the body.

E

50 COLUBRIDA.

Natrix torquata, Ray, Syn. Quad. p. 334. Frem. Brit. An. p. 156. JENyNs,
Brit. Vert. p. 296. Bonar. Faun. Ital. cum figuris.

Coluber natrix, Linn. Syst. Nat. I. p. 380. Saw, Gen. Zool. III. p.519.
Larr. Hist. Rept. IV. p. 38. Daun. Hist. Rept. VII. p.
34, t. lix. f. 15; t. lxxxii. f. 1. Turr. Brit. Faun. p. 81.

» torquatus, acer. Quad. Ovip. et Serp. II. p. 147, t. vi. f. 2.

Natria vulgaris, Laor. Spec. Med. p. 75 et 80.

Tropidonotus natriz, Kuni.— Frrzines. Prod. Faun. Aust. p. 326, Wact. Syst.
Amph. p. 179. Gray, in Griff. An. Kingd. IX. p. 85.

Ringed Snake, Penn. Brit. Zool. III. p. 33, t. iv. No. 13.

Couleuvre a Collier, LAczp. |. ¢.

Tue family of Colubride, to which our Common Snake
belongs, is one of the most extensive of all the natural
groups of reptiles. Jt includes a number of generic di-
visions, some more and some less-strongly marked, which
are found in every quarter of the globe. They are, all of
them, perfectly free from any poisonous quality, not pos-
sessing any of those tubular teeth or poison glands which
render some other families of Serpents so formidable.
Many of the species which, on account of the broad plates
which are found to occupy the upper part of the head, were
considered as belonging to the genus Coluber, by Linneus
and his immediate followers, are to be referred, not to
other genera only, but to other families; as the Cobra di
Capello, and the Common Viper, for instance.

To this family, then, belong those Serpents, and those
only, which, in addition to the absence of poisonous fangs,
have the head covered with broad plates, and the under
side of the tail with divided scuta throughout its whole
length, as shewn in the following figures, which are taken
from the present species.

It is by far the most common of our true reptilia, if we
except the little Lizard, Zootoca vivipara. It inhabits all
our woods, and heaths, and hedgerows, especially in the
neighbourhood of water, feeding upon young birds, and
even eggs, or mice, and other small quadrupeds, and

4

RINGED SNAKE. 51

lizards; but, in preference to all these, upon frogs. I have
seen one of these voracious creatures in pursuit of a frog,
which appeared perfectly conscious of its approaching fate,

leaping with less and less power as it found its situation
more hopeless, and the crisis of its fate approaching, and
uttering its peculiar weak cry with more than usual shrill-
ness, until at length it was seized by its pursuer by the
hinder leg, and gradually devoured. The manner in
which the Snake takes its prey is very curious. If it bea
frog, it generally seizes it by the hinder leg, because it is
usually taken in pursuit. As soon as this takes place, the
frog, in most instances, ceases to make any struggle or
attempt to escape. The whole body and the legs are
stretched out, as it were, convulsively, and the Snake
gradually draws in first the leg he has seized, and after-
wards the rest of the animal, portion after portion, by
means of the peculiar mechanism of the jaws, so admirably
adapted for this purpose. It must be recollected that in
the true Serpents, unlike the group to which the Slow-
worm belongs, the bones of which the upper and lower jaw
are composed, are perfectly and loosely distinct from each
other, and connected only by ligaments. By this arrange-

E 2

52 COLUBRIDA.

ment not only is great dilatability of the mouth obtained,
which is also aided by a peculiarity in the structure of the
joint, but one side of either jaw is capable of acting inde-
pendently of the other; and as the animal is gradually
taking its prey, one side of the jaws is extended forwards,
and the two rows of teeth of the upper, and the single row
of the lower, fixed into the integument ; then the opposite
side of the jaws is stretched forwards in the same manner,
and so on alternately, until the victim is thus gradually
and often slowly conveyed into the esophagus, and by the
muscular action of this part it is swallowed. When a frog
is in the progress of being swallowed in this manner, as
soon as the Snake’s jaws have reached the body, the other
hinder leg becomes turned forwards; and as the body
gradually disappears, the three legs and the head are seen
standing forwards out of the Snake’s mouth in a very sin-
gular manner. Should the Snake, however, have taken
the Frog by the middle of the body, it invariably turns it
by several movements of the jaws, until the head is directed
towards the throat of the Snake, and it is then swallowed
head foremost. This process will remind all who have
witnessed the curious sight of the great Boa taking its food,
of the manner in which that enormous reptile effects its de-
glutition, after it has, by the pressure of its mighty sides,
killed and crushed the bones of its victim.

The scene above-described is one which I have often wit-
nessed; and I once saw two Snakes seize upon the same
hapless frog. As this circumstance is not unlikely to hap-
pen in their native state, it may not be out of place to
mention the result. On placing a frog in a large box, in
which were several Snakes, one of the latter instantly
seized it by one of the hinder legs, and immediately after-
wards another of the Snakes took forcible possession of the

RINGED SNAKE. 53

fore-leg of the opposite side. Each continued its inroads
upon the poor frog’s limb and body until at length the
upper jaws of the two Snakes met, and one of them in the
course of its progress slightly bit the jaw of the other ; this
was retaliated, though evidently without any hostile feel-
ing; but after one or two such accidents, the most power-
ful of the Snakes commenced shaking the other, which still
had hold of the frog, with great violence, from side to side,
against the sides of the box. . After a few moments’ rest,
the other returned the attack, and at length the one which
had last seized the frog, having a less firm hold, was
shaken off, and the victor swallowed the prey in quiet. No
sooner was this curious contest over than I put another
frog into the box, which was at once seized and swallowed
by the unsuccessful combatant.

The frog is generally alive not only during the process of
deglutition, but even after it has passed into the stomach.
I once saw a very small one, which had been swallowed by
a large Snake in my possession, leap again out of the
mouth of the latter, which happened to gape, as they fre-
quently do immediately after taking food. And, on an-
other occasion I heard a frog distinctly utter its peculiar
cry several minutes after it had been swallowed by the
Snake. In taking lizards or birds, it always, as far as my
own observation goes, swallows the head foremost. After
it has taken its food, it usually remains inactive for many
days, not ordinarily seeking a fresh meal until the former
one is digested. So exclusively are all Serpents animal
feeders, that they not only will not take, but cannot digest,
vegetable matters. This is shewn in a very striking man-
ner by a fact which I have witnessed in the case of a Boa
which was in the menagerie formerly kept at the Tower.
This creature was accustomed to have fowls given to it ;

54 COLUBRID,

and after this food was digested, and the remains were
voided, any corn which might happen to have been in the
crop of the fowl when it was taken, was always found
mingled with the excrement, but wholly unchanged,

Snakes are extremely fond of water, taking to it readily,
and swimming with great ease and elegance, holding the
head and neck above the surface. It is very probable that
it resorts to the water in search of frogs.

Snakes, like most other Reptilia, shed their cuticle or
outer skin at greater or less intervals. It is a mistake to
assign a particular period to this process; some have stated
it to occur once, some twice in the summer; but I have
found it to depend upon the temperature of the atmosphere,
and on the state of health, and the more or less frequent
feeding of the animal. I have known the skin shed four or
five times during the year. It is always thrown off by re-
versing it; so that the transparent covering of the eyes,
and that of the scales also, are always found concave in the ~
exuvie. Previously to this curious circumstance taking
place, the whole cuticle becomes somewhat opaque, the
eyes are dim, and the animal is evidently blind. It also
becomes more or less inactive; until at length, when the
skin is ready to be removed, being everywhere detached,
and the new skin perfectly hard underneath, the ani-
mal bursts it at the neck, and creeping through some
dense herbage, or low brushwood, leaves it attached, and
comes forth in far brighter and clearer colours than before.

Like most Serpents, the Snake has the power of expel-
ling from certain glands, situated within the vent, a most
disgusting stinking secretion. This is only done when
alarmed or irritated, or when under sexual excitement; in
the latter case it is most probably intended as a means of
directing the other sex in the pursuit.

RINGED SNAKE. 55

This species, and indeed the whole genus, is truly ovipa-
rous, depositing its eggs a considerable time before the
young ones are hatched, and leaving them to be vivified
and developed by the heat of the sun, or of a dung-heap.
The eggs are connected together by a glutinous matter, and
are generally from sixteen to twenty in number. It is cer-
tainly remarkable, considering that the normal character of
the whole class of reptiles is truly oviparous, that of our
five indigenous species of true Reptilia, the minority only
should deposit their eggs before the young are developed
and hatched—the present species, and the Lacerta agilis ;
the latter, too, a recent addition to our known Fauna.

Towards the end of autumn, or earlier, they resort to
their place of hibernation, in some sequestered and sheltered
corner, as the hollow roots of a tree, under hedges or
brushwood, or similar places of security, where they re-
main, coiled together, sometimes in considerable numbers,
throughout the whole of the inclement season; and with
the first return of warmth they come forth with all the
other tribes which pass the winter in torpidity, and re-
sume all the functions of life.

The Common Snake is easily tamed, and may be made
to distinguish those who caress and feed it. I had
one many years since, which knew me from all other
persons; and, when let out of his box, would immediately
come to me, and crawl under the sleeve of my coat, where
he was fond of lying perfectly still, and enjoying the
warmth. He was accustomed to come to my hand for
a draught of milk every morning at breakfast, which he
always did of his own accord; but he would fly from
strangers, and hiss if they meddled with him.

It inhabits most of the countries of Europe, from Scot-
land and the corresponding latitude of the Continent, to

56 COLUBRIDA.

Italy and Sicily. In all parts of Eugiana it 1s exceedingly
common ; generally frequenting places in which there. is
ready access to water, and hence it is found in more
humid places than the Viper. )

So much has been said of the inability of reptiles of
every kind to exist in Ireland,—or at least of their non-
existence in that island, that I have endeavoured to ascer-
tain exactly to what extent these statements are correct.
I have already mentioned the existence of the L. agilis
there, and with regard to the present species, the follow-
ing is the result of my inquiries. It would appear not
only that the Common Snake is not indigenous to Ireland,
but that several attempts to introduce it have totally
failed. Mr. Ball some time since informed me of some
trials of this kind; and the following letter, which I
have recently received from Mr. Thompson, gives a very
detailed and clear account of the actual facts.

‘“‘ In this order (Ophidia) there is not now, nor I believe
ever was there, any species indigenous to Ireland. In the
Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal for April 1835,* it
is remarked, ‘ We have learned from good authority that a
recent importation of Snakes has been made into Iveland,
and that at present they are multiplying rapidly within a
few miles of the tomb of St. Patrick.’ I never,” proceeds
Mr. Thompson, “heard of this circumstance until it was
published, and subsequently endeavoured to ascertain its
truth, by inquiring of the persons about Downpatrick,
(where the tomb of St. Patrick is,) who are best acquaint-
ed with these subjects, not one of whom had ever heard
of Snakes being in the neighbourhood. Recollecting that
about the year 1831 a Snake (Natria torquata), imme-
diately after being killed at Milecross, was brought by

* Vol. XVIIL p. 373.

RINGED SNAKE. 57

some country people in great consternation to my friend,
Dr. J. L. Drummond, I thought this might be one of those
alluded to; and recently made inquiry of James Clealand,
Esq. of Ruth Gael House (county Down), twenty-five
miles distant in a direct line from Downpatrick, respecting
Snakes said to have been turned out by him; I was fa-
voured by that gentleman with the following satisfactory
reply :—‘ The report of my having introduced Snakes into
this country is correct. Being curious to ascertain whether
the climate of Ireland was destructive to that class of rep-
tiles, about six years ago I purchased half a dozen of them
in Covent Garden Market in London; they had been taken
some time, and were quite tame and familiar. I turned
them out in my garden; they immediately rambled away ;
one of them was killed at Milecross,* three miles distant,
in about a week after its liberation ; and three others were
shortly afterwards killed within that distance of the place
where they were turned out; and it is highly probable
that the remaining two met with a similar fate, falling
victims to a reward which it appears was offered for their
destruction.”

Such is the most accurate and authentic account which
I have yet obtained respecting this curious fact in the geo-
graphical distribution of these animals; and it certainly
does not appear that the failure of these attempts to intro-
duce Snakes into Ireland is to be attributed to anything
connected with the climate, or other local circumstances,
but rather to the prejudices of the inhabitants which led to
their destruction, nor is there reason to believe that their
absence from Ireland is other than purely accidental.

That this immunity from reptile infestation was an an-

* This was the one before alluded to, as haying been brought to Dr. Drum-
mond,

58 COLUBRID A.

b)

cient privilege of the ‘“ Land of Saints,” is shewn by the
following passage from Bede’s “ Ecclesiastical History :°—

“ Hibernia autem et latitudine status, et salubritate ac
serenitate aérum multum Brittanniz prestat, ita ut rard
ibi nix plusquam triduana remaneat : nemo propter hiemem
aut foena secet estate, aut stabula fabricet jumentis: nul-
lum ibi reptile videri soleat, nullus vivere serpens valeat :
nam sepe illo de Brittannia adlati serpentes, mox ut proxi-
mante terris navigio, odore aéris illius adtacti intereunt:
quin potius omnia pené que de eadem insula sunt contra ve-
nenum valent. Denique vidimus quibusdam a serpente per-
cussis, rasa folia codicum qui de Hibernia fuerant, et ipsam
rasuram aque immissam, ac potui datam, talibus protinus
totam vim veneni grassantis, totum inflati corporis absum-
sisse, ac sedasse tumorem.” *

This species grows to the length of more than three feet,
sometimes, though rarely, of four feet. The head is con-
siderably depressed, of an elegant ovate form, the back part
broader than the neck; the gape is of the length of the
head, and slightly curved, rising posteriorly. The teeth
are small, curved backwards, and, as in all the other in-
nocuous Snakes, arranged in two series on each side of the
jaw both above and below. Plates of the head broad and
flat ; labial plates seven. Tongue long, excessively flexible,
bifid to about one-third its length. Body very long; the

* “Treland, in breadth, and for wholesomeness and serenity of climate, far
surpasses Britain, for the snow scarcely ever lies there above three days; no man
makes hay in the summer for winter’s provision, or builds stables for his beasts
of burden. No reptiles are found there, and no snake can live there ; for, though
often carried thither out of Britain, as soon as the ship comes near the shore, and
the scent of the air reaches them, they die. On the contrary, almost all things in
the island are good against poison. In short, we have known that, when some
persons have been bitten by serpents, the scrapings of leaves of books that were
brought out of Ireland being put into water, and given them to drink, have imme-
diately expelled the spreading poison, and assuaged the swelling.”—Bede’s “ Ec-
clesiastical History,” b. 1. c. 1, Giles’s Translation.

RINGED SNAKE. 59

median line of the back elevated; the neck narrowed; the
tail very tapering, moderately pointed at the extremity,
occupying generally about one-fifth of the entire length.
Seales of the back oval, imbricated, each having a distinct
carina, those of the sides broader and with the carina less
marked, and becoming almost obsolete. Abdominal plates
broad, transverse, in number about one hundred and
seventy; subcaudal plates from sixty to sixty-five pairs.

The upper parts of the body and head are of a light
brownish grey with a green tinge, sometimes approaching
to a dull, pale olive. The labial plates separated by distinct
black lines. Behind the head, on the upper part, is a
broad collar, or two lunate spots of a bright yellow colour,
and immediately behind these are two broad transverse
spots of black, which are also sometimes separate, at others
confluent. Two rows of small black spots arranged alter-
nately down the back, and larger ones at the sides; all of
which vary in size, as well as in the degree of their ap-
proximation to each other. Abdomen of a dull pale bluish,
or plumbeous colour, in many specimens marbled with
black.

The female, as in all Ophidians, is always much larger
than the male.

60 COLUBRID A.

Coluber Dumfrisiensis. Sowerb.

Many years since a small Snake, having the characters
of one of the Colubride, was taken by Mr. J. W. Sim-
mons, near Dumfries. It was published as a new species
by Mr. Sowerby in his British Miscellany, and figured in
the third plate of that work. It was there named Coluber
Dumfrisiensis. The specimen remained until within the
last few years in the possession of Mr. Sowerby’s family;
but having come into my hands, it was unfortunately lost
or mislaid, and I have never since been able to recover it.
There is, I think, great reason to believe that it was a
very young Natri# torquata, but differig certainly in
many respects from the usual appearance and characters of
that species. It was about three or four inches in length;
“of a pale brown colour, with pairs of reddish brown
stripes from side to side, over the back, somewhat zigzag,
with intervening spots on the sides.” The most remark-
able peculiarity mentioned, however, is that ‘“ the scales are
extremely simple, not carinated.” The abdominal plates
were one hundred and sixty-two; those under the tail .
about eighty. This is all the information at present
possessed respecting the species, if it be mdeed a species.
Mr. Jenyns, in his excellent Manual, expresses the opinion
which I have given above, that it is ‘probably an imma-
ture variety of the common species.”

See Sowerby’s Brit. Miscell. p.3, t. 1.5; also Loudon’s
Mag. Nat. Hist. II. p. 438, where the original figure is
copied.

COMMON VIPER. 61

SQUAMATA.
(OPHIDIA.) VIPERADA.

Genus, Pelias. . Merr.

Generic Character.—Head depressed, oblong-ovate, somewhat compressed hbe-
fore, and wider behind the eyes; vertex covered with scuta; no pit between the
nostrils and eyes; tail with double plates beneath.

COMMON VIPER.

ADDER.
Pelias Berus.

Specific Character.—Brown, with a series of confluent rhomboidal black spots
along the back.

62 VIPERADA.

Vipera, Ray, Syn. Quad. et Serp. p. 285.

Coluber Berus, Linn. Syst. Nat. I. p. 377. Laur. Spec. Med. p. 97. SHAw,
Gen. Zool. III. p. 365, t. ci. Turton, Brit. Faun. p. 80.

Vipera 5 Davo. Hist. Rept. VI. p. 89.

» vulgaris, LatR. Rep. III. p. 812.
communis, Leacu, Zool. Miscell. III. t. vii. FiLem. Brit. Anim. p. 156.
Jenyns, Brit. Vert. p. 297.

Pelias Berus, Merrem, Syst. Amph. p. 148, sp. 1, @ 6. y Bonar. Faun,
Ital. cum. fig.

Vipére commune, Daun. 1. c. (an Cuy.?)

9°

Viper, Pennant, Brit. Zool. III. p. 26, t. iv.
Var. B.

Red Viper, RackeErt, in Linn. Trans. XII. p. 349.

Coluber chersea 2 Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 337.
Var. y.

Blue-bellied Viper, (Coluber ceruleus,) SHEPP. in Linn. Trans. VII. p. 56.
Var. 3.

Black Viper, Leacu, Zool. Mise. loco cit.

Tue Common Viper is happily the sole British repre-
sentative of any of the poisonous groups of Serpents, and
indeed the only poisonous reptile indigenous to this coun-
try. It is far more numerous in Scotland than ‘the Com-
mon Snake, and is found in abundance in all parts of
England and Wales, frequenting heaths, dry woods, and
banks. In Ireland it has never been seen; and it may,
almost with certainty, be stated that it does not exist
there. On the continent of Europe it is extensively dis-
tributed, being found from the northern parts of Russia to
the south of Italy and Spain. It is everywhere deservedly
feared on account of its venom, which, although less viru-
lent than that of many other species, is yet sufficiently so
to produce severe symptoms, and sometimes, in ti. .varmer
climates, even fatal results. In this country I have never
seen a case which terminated in death, nor have I been
able to trace to an authentic source any of the numerous
reports of such a termination, which have at various times
been confidently promulgated. At the same time the

COMMON VIPER. 63

symptoms are frequently so threatening, that I cannot but
conclude that in very hot weather, and when not only
the reptile is in full activity and power, but the constitu-
tion of the victim in a state of great irritability and dimi-
nished power, a bite from the Common Viper would very
probably prove fatal. The remedies usually employed are
the external application of oil, and the internal adminis-
tration of ammonia.

The poisonous fluid is perfectly innocuous when swal-
lowed. Dr. Mead, and others, have made this experiment,
and never experienced the slightest ill effects from it. It
is, however, clear that there would be danger in swallow-
ing it, were any part of the mouth, the throat, or the
esophagus, in a state of ulceration, or having an abraded
surface.

It will not perhaps be wholly uninteresting to describe
briefly the very beautiful apparatus* by which the poison
wounds are inflicted, which render these, and so many
other Serpents, so formidable. On each side of the upper
jaw, instead of the outer row of teeth which are found in
non-venomous Serpents, there exist two or three, or more,
long, curved, and tubular teeth, the first of which is larger
than the others, and is attached to a small moveable bone,
articulated to the maxillary bone, and moved by a mus-
cular apparatus, by which the animal has the power of
erecting it. Ina state of rest the fang reclines backwards
along the margin of the jaw, and is covered by a fold of
skin; " »when about to be called into use, it is erected
by means of a small muscle, and brought to stand perpen-
dicular to the bone. The tooth itself is as it were perfo-
rated by a tube, the mode of formation of which was not
understood until it was demonstrated by Mr. Smith in the ,

* See page 64,

64 VIPERADA.

Philosophical Transactions for 1818. This tube, although |
completely enclosed, excepting at its basal and apical
orifices, must be considered as formed merely by the
closing round of a groove in the external part of the tooth
itself, and hence not in any way connected with the inner
cavity of the tooth, in which exists the pulp upon which
the substance of the tooth is formed. The base of the
tooth, and consequently the basal orifice of the tube just
described, is embedded in a sac, into which the poison is
poured from the ducts of the glandular structure by which
it is secreted, and which is believed to represent the
parotid gland of the higher vertebrata. The poisonous
fluid itself is inodorous, tasteless, and of a yellow colour.
It is secreted in greater quantity, and its qualities are
more virulent in a high temperature than in cold. Its
secretion may be greatly increased by local irritation; as
is evidenced by the following fact. Some years since I
was dissecting very carefully and minutely the poison
apparatus of a large Rattlesnake, which had been dead
for some hours; the head had been taken off immediately
after death; yet as I continued my dissection the yellow
poison continued to be secreted so fast as to require to be
occasionally dried off with a bit of rag or sponge; I be-
lieve that there could not have been less altogether than six
or eight drops at the least.

When the animal inflicts the wound, the pressure on the
tooth forces a small drop of the poison through the tube ;
it passes through the external orifice, which is situated on
the concave side of the curved tooth, and is in the form of
a slit. The manner in which the blow is inflicted is ag
follows. The animal generally throws itself in the first
place into a coil more or less close, and the anterior part
of the body is raised. The neck is bent somewhat abruptly

COMMON VIPER. 65

backwards, and the head fixed almost horizontally. In
an instant the head is, as it were, launched by a sudden
effort towards the object of its anger, and the erected tooth
struck into it, and withdrawn with the velocity of thought.
It is found by experiment that the effect of subsequent
wounds is greatly diminished either by the diminution of
the quantity of venom, or by some deterioration of its
strength; so that if a venomous Serpent be made repeat-
edly to inflict wounds, without allowing sufficiently long
intervals for it to recover its powers, each successive bite
becomes less and less effective. A gentleman of my ac-
quaintance had some years since received a living Rattle-
snake from America. Intending to try the effects of its
bite upon some rats, he introduced one of these animals
into the cage with the Serpent; it immediately struck the
rat, which died in two minutes. Another rat was then
placed in the cage ; it ran to the part of the cage farthest
from the Serpent, uttering cries of distress. The Snake
did not immediately attack it; but after about half an
hour, and on being irritated, it struck the rat, which did
not exhibit any symptoms of being poisoned for several mi-
nutes, and died at twenty minutes after the bite. A third,
and remarkably large rat, was then introduced into the
cage. It exhibited no signs of terror at its dangerous
companion, which, on its part, appeared to take no notice
of the rat. After watching for the rest of the evening, my
friend retired, leaving the Serpent and the rat together ;
and on rising early the next morning to ascertain the fate
of his two heterogeneous prisoners, he found the Snake
dead, and the muscular part of its back eaten by the rat.
I do not remember at what time of the year this circum-
stance took place, but I believe it was not during very hot
weather.

66 VIPERADA.

Although there is no reason to believe that the Viper
employs this powerful means of destruction for the purpose
of disabling its prey before it is finally seized; but, on the
contrary, all the observations which have been made upon —
its mode of feeding, tend to shew that, like the Snake, it
seizes its prey at once, and immediately begins to swallow
it; yet it is not at all improbable, considering how instant-
aneously the poison begins to affect small animalsy.that
even in the act of seizing a mouse or bird, or any other
victim, it may instil a sufficient quantity of venom into
its system to paralyze and presently destroy it. Still the
action by which it takes its prey is very different from
that which it employs in its defensive attack, and resem-
bles that employed by the innocuous tribes. Its favourite
food consists of the smaller mammalia, field-mice, shrews,
and similar little animals, of frogs also, though less com-
monly, and occasionally of birds. It does not always con-
fine its voracity within the limits of its powers of deglu-
tition ; for I have in my possession a specimen of a small
Viper which was taken on Poole Heath in Dorsetshire, in
a dying state, in the act of attempting to swallow a mouse
which was too large for it, the skin of the neck being so
distended as to have burst in several places.

The Viper, like many others of the poisonous groups of
Serpents, is ovo-viviparous. I have concluded, from the
examination of many specimens, both of this species and of
the Rattlesnake, that it is in the act of parturition that the
membrane of the egg is burst. I have examined several in
which the young have appeared ready to be excluded;
but have always found the investing membrane entire ;
although so thin and soft as to be torn by the slightest
force. I give a figure of the young Viper in this state,
the membrane having been removed. It is coiled up so

COMMON VIPER. 67

closely as almost to appear like a solid mass; but no
sooner is it emancipated than it assumes all the activity and
virulence which belong to the species. If a female Viper
about to bring forth her young be killed, and the young

ones set at liberty by opening the abdomen, they will im-
mediately crawl about, and on being irritated will throw
themselves into an attitude of defence.

A certain degree of temperature, varying in the different
classes, is requisite for the development of the embryo.
In the mammalia this temperature is afforded by the
standard heat of the body of the parent, within which the
young is brought to perfection; in birds it is also, with
few exceptions, communicated by the parent, but by
means of incubation, or sitting on the eggs after they are
excluded from the body; in the reptilia, on the contrary,
it is communicated solely by the surrounding atmosphere ;
and this is equally the case whether the eggs are deposited
before the growth of the embryo has commenced, or the
young are perfected within the mother, and brought forth
alive. In the latter case, as I have already observed,
when speaking on the development of the young of the
common Viviparous Lizard, Zootoca vivipara, it is by the
exposure of the body of the mother to the sun’s rays that
the necessary degree of heat is obtained ; and hence during
the period of gestation it is very common to see the preg-
nant female Viper lying, as it were, all abroad, with flat-

tened body, basking in the sunshine; and at this time she
F 2

68 VIPERA) A.

is much legs easily disturbed, and more tardy of flight than
the male. The number of young produced at each birth
varies from twelve to twenty, or even more.

There are on record numerous statements of various
degrees of credibility, of the curious fact that the female
Viper allows her young ones to retreat into her stomach
for safety when alarmed by any sudden danger. These
statements generally declare that the mother, on the oceur-
rence of any such emergency, opens her mouth, and that
the young immediately enter it, and pass into the stomach,
where they remain protected until the danger be passed,
or the Viper has gained a place of safety ; it is added, in
many cases, that, on killing the mother, the young have
been found within the stomach, and on being liberated
have at once reassumed all their former activity. The
question has been reopened of late by the publication of
several communications in a most respectable periodical,
to which the reader is referred.* It will be observed,
that with one exception, the writers have given their
statements only on hearsay; and that in the one case
which is given from personal observation, the circumstance
is stated to have occurred when the writer was a boy.
The first impression made on the mind of one accustomed
to compare evidence with probability, and to weigh the
value of assertions by the rules of analogy, is that the mis-
take, if it be one, may have arisen from the viviparous
character of the animal; but the opinion is so general, the
mass of evidence so considerable, and the details in many
cases so minute, as scarcely to allow of the question being
thus summarily disposed of; and in this state of doubt
upon so interesting a subject, it is perhaps better to await

* See several numbers of the Gardeners’ Chronicle, in April, 1848, &c.

COMMON VIPER. 69

the results of direct experiment, which might be readily
made in any locality where these reptiles abound.

The Viper, like the other reptilia, seeks a secret and
secure place in which to hibernate during the cold months
of the year. Here several are found entwined together,
and in a very torpid condition; and if at this period a
Viper be made to wound an animal with its poison-fang,
no injury is likely to result from it ; the poison either does
not exist at all, or it is inert.

It frequents dry sandy heaths and waste places, not
requiring, like the Snake, the neighbourhood of water, nor
swimming so readily as that species. In many parts of
the country it is even more common than the Snake.

The name Adder, by which it is known im many parts
of England and Scotland, is anciently written nedre, and
afterwards eddre, the initial x being dropped. It is from
the Anglo-Saxon nedre,—nether, lower,—from its creeping
position, and the name was applied to all the Serpent
tribe. The word Viper, Latin Vipera, is derived from its
viviparous habit.

The head is somewhat depressed, almost oval, slightly
widening behind the eyes. Gape as long as the head,
ascending behind. No teeth in the upper maxillary bones,
excepting the poison-fangs; a row of small teeth in the -

70 VIPERAD A.

palatine bone on each side. Neck rather smaller than the
back of the head, from which the body increases to nearly
the middle of the entire length; the rest of the body to
the vent scarcely diminishing; the tail becoming almost
abruptly smaller, and tapering to its extremity, which is
pointed; the tail varies in its proportion to the body, but
is generally not more than one-eighth of the total length,
and in some even less. The head is covered with small
squamous plates, which in some specimens are regularly
formed and symmetrically placed; but in others they are
very irregular. There are three which are larger than the
others,—namely, the vertical, and the pair of occipital
plates. The scales of the back and sides are semi-oval, or
somewhat lanceolate, imbricated, and distinctly carinated ;
they are disposed in eighteen series. The plates of the
abdomen have nothing particular in their form; they vary
in number, but usually consist of about one hundred and
forty to one hundred and fifty, and those of the’ tail are
about thirty-five pairs.

The general ground-colour varies considerably. In
some it is nearly olive, in others a rich deep brown, and in
others a dirty brownish yellow; and when in high health,
and shortly after having cast the skin, the surface is
slightly iridescent in particular lights. A mark between
the eyes, a spot on each side the hinder part of the head,
and a zigzag line running the whole length of the body
and tail, formed by a series of confluent rhombs, as well as
a row of small irregular triangular spots on each side, all
of a much darker hue than the ground-colour of the body,
and frequently almost black. Ihave a specimen in my
collection which I received alive from Hornsey Wood, the
ground of which was almost perfectly white, and all the
markings jet black. The under parts are plumbeous in

COMMON VIPER. 71

some, with lighter or darker spots, in others almost wholly
black.

The tendency of this species to vary in its colours has
occasioned an erroneous multiplication of species by various
authors. Some of the more remarkable and conspicuous
varieties I proceed to describe.

The first is the Red Viper (V. communis, var. B of
Mr. Jenyns), described by my venerable friend the late
Rey. Thomas Rackett, in the twelfth volume of the Lin-
nean Transactions. It was found by him in Cranbourne
Chase in Dorsetshire, in which county I have also obtained
it from Poole Heath. It varies much in the brightness
and intensity of its colour.

72 VIPERAD&.

The specimen which I here figure, and from which I
give the following description, was taken in the neighbour-
hood of Fordingbridge, in Hampshire, and was kindly
forwarded to me by Dr. Thackeray, Provost of King’s
College, Cambridge, by whom I am informed that, of
great numbers of Vipers which are annually destroyed in
that neighbourhood, about one in ten are of the present
variety.

The ground-colour is a dull brick-red, with the usual
markings of the Common Viper, of a ferruginous brown, or
mahogany colour. The marks on the head are very simi-
lar in form; but the V mark is somewhat more divergent
than is usual in the common variety. The throat is white,
tinged with ferruginous red, and the belly is ferruginous
grey, with minute whitish dots, and a few larger dots of
reddish brown. The round spots on each side of the back
are rather more distinct, and somewhat smaller than in
the common sort; there are also a few irregular reddish
white spots along the sides of the neck; the upper lip is
white, barred with brown. The only striking peculiarity
in its form is the greater proportionate breadth of the head
behind the eyes, which in this specimen is equal to the
length of the gape.

The plates of the abdomen are one hundred and fifty ;
those of the tail thirty-three pairs. The following are the
dimensions of the specimen here figured :—

In. Lines
Total length ¢ : ¢ : . 10 30
Length of the tail ‘ : ; a 10
Length of the head < : : =, OuS
Breadth of the head . : . : 0 4

A specimen has been particularly described by Mr.
Strickland, in the sixth volume of Loudon’s Magazine of
Natural History, in the following words: —“ Of a bright

COMMON VIPER. Hic

ferruginous red, with zigzag markings down the back,
resembling in form those of the Common Viper; but
instead of being black, or dark brown, they are of a deep
mahogany colour; also a series of irregular spots of the
same colour along each side; the zigzag line terminates at
the back of the head in a heart-shaped spot, placed be-
tween two converging dark-coloured bands, which meet on
the top of the head, and again diverge towards the eyes;
belly ferruginous like the back.” Mr. Strickland adds the
fact which I have mentioned above, that the head is much
broader and shorter than that of the Common Viper.
The Prince of Musignano figures, in his Mauna Italica, as
the true Chersea, a small Viper, considerably similar to
our Red Viper, excepting in its colour, which is a light
grey, with darker markings. There is in that figure, also,
the greater breadth of head which is observable in our
animal, together with a still more obtuse rostrum. The
Prince’s figure is evidently taken from a young animal,
which may possibly belong to a different species. He
terms the V. Berus, ‘‘marasso palustre,” and his V. Cher-
sea, ‘‘ marasso alpino,”—a distinction certainly not sus-
tained by our two varieties. After all, the question whe-
ther it be the Coluber Chersea of Linneus, and whether,
if not so, this last-mentioned species be distinct from
the Common Viper, is one of considerable doubt and
obscurity.

The second variety (var. y of Jenyns), is described as
a distinct species by the Rev. R. Sheppard in the Linnean
Transactions, under the name of Coluber cwruleus, or Blue-
bellied Viper. It scarcely even deserves to be considered
as a distinct variety, as the plumbeous belly by which
it is characterized is rather a difference of degree than of
hue.

74 VIPERAD A.

The Black Viper, of which I give a figure, drawn from
a very fine living specimen, now before me, obtained, and
obligingly lent me, by Mr. Combe, is the var. 6 of Mr.

# CO Gow

a el 1Nhaeee ti

Jenyns. It has been figured, though but badly, and
described by Dr. Leach, in his Zoological Miscellany. It
is evidently a variety only of the present species, and is of
a fine rich black colour, excepting under the jaw and
throat, which is of a dirty white; the usual markings of
the species may be seen, in particular lights, of a more

-

intense black than the ground colour.

COMMON VIPER. 75

I have to add a fourth variety, from the specimen in
my possession, already mentioned, which I obtained from
Hornsey Wood. The ground-colour was of an uniform
dirty white, and all the markings were of a deep full
black. It was, when living, one of the most beautiful of
the species I have ever seen, and offers a remarkable
contrast to the black variety.

A TAIL PIECE,

76

AMPHIBIA.

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.

Tue doctrine of continuous affinities could scarcely
receive a more striking illustration in the animal kingdom
than is afforded by the interesting group constituting the
Ampursia of modern authors. Intermediate in their struc-
ture, and, in many forms, in their habits and mode of life
also, between the fishes and the true reptiles, they bear a
still more interesting relation to these classes, in that
remarkable change which many of them undergo at a
certain period of life, by which they become transformed
from the nature and habits of the former, to those of the
latter class; and thus exhibit in their own individual life a
beautiful and complete example of transition of organiza-*%
tion; a subject which constitutes one of the most impor-
tant theories connected with the higher departments of
Zoological science. To any person capable of appre-
ciating the interest attached to the study of physiological
phenomena, the contemplation of an animal which at one
period of its life is endowed exclusively with the organs
of aqudtic respiration, resembling the gills of fishes, with
means of locomotion adapted only to a constant residence
in the water, and with a digestive apparatus fitted exclu-
sively for the assimilation of vegetable food, assuming by
degrees the function of atmospheric respiration, acquirmg
limbs which are formed for leaping on land with great
strength and agility, and manifesting the most voracious

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. Te

carnivorous appetite, will not only excite feelings of the
deepest admiration, but necessarily lead to the investiga-
tion of the laws by which such extraordinary changes are
governed, and of the relations which they bear to the
theory of continuous affinity before alluded to, and to that
of progressive development through the whole of the
animal kingdom. That such phenomena are exhibited by
the typical forms of this class will be sufficiently esta-
blished by the slight sketch of their structure, habits, and
development, which will presently be offered.

The Ampursta have by many zoologists been considered
in the light of an order of the class Reptilia ; but the cha-
racters by which they are distinguished appear to me to
be sufficiently marked and important to justify their sepa-
ration as a distinct class. They may be characterised as
“ vertebrated animals with cold blood, naked skin, and
oviparous reproduction, and most of them undergoing a
metamorphosis, having reference to a change of condition,
from an aquatic to an atmospheric medium of respiration.”
_* The class has been variously divided into groups, accord-
ing to the different views of the naturalists by whom they
have been arranged. The division adopted by many zoolo-
gists of the present day, according to the mere presence or
absence of the tail in the perfect state, is not only liable
to the objections which belong to all merely dichotonous
arrangements, but appears to be far less natural and less
consistent with the physiological characters of the groups
than that which is derived from the absence or presence
and the duration of the branchie. Thus the Frogs and
Toads, which in the adult state have not the vestige of a
tail, and the Salamanders and Tritons, which retain that
organ through life, all agree in the early possession of
branchiz, which are subsequently lost and replaced by true

78 AMPHIBIA.

lungs, and in undergoing consequently a total change im
the medium of their respiration; whilst the Protews and
the Siren retain their branchie with lungs, (tudimentary,
at least,) and probably throughout life possess synchro-
nously the two-fold function of aquatic and atmospheric
respiration. The Amphiuma and Menopoma have not as
vet been observed to possess branchie at any period of
their existence, though further observations are necessary
to warrant the conclusion of the absolute non-existence
of a metamorphosis in those genera.” *

As it appeared to me that no one arrangement hitherto
given had sufficiently distinguished the different forms, I
proposed, in the article just quoted, the following modifica-
tions as more consistent with the diversities of structure in
the different groups.

Crass AMPHIBIA.

Order I. anoura.

Body short and broad. Feet during the tadpole state
wanting; afterwards four, the hinder ones long, and
formed for leaping. Tail before the metamorphosis long,
compressed ; afterwards totally wanting. Ribs wanting’
Vertebree few and anchylosed. Tympanum open. Respi-
ration at first aquatic by branchie, afterwards atmospheric
by lungs. Branchie at first external, but withdrawn with- -
in the chest before the metamorphosis, Impregnation ef-
fected externally during the passage of the ova.

Genera. Lana, Hyla, Bufo, &c.

* See the article “ Amphibia,” by the author of the present work in Dr.
Todd’s Cyclopedia of Anatomy and Physiology.

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 19

Order II. vropeEta.

Body long, slender. Feet always four. Tail long, per-
sistent. Ribs very short. Vertebra numerous and move-
able. Respiration at first aquatic by external branchiz,
which are never concealed within the chest; afterwards
atmospheric by cellular lungs. Tympanum concealed.
Impregnation effected by sexual contact, at least in most
instances

Genera. Salamandrina, Salamandra, Molge.

Order III. Aampuipneusta.

Body elongate, formed for swimming. Feet either four
or two anterior only. Tail compressed, persistent. Re-
spiration aquatic by means of branchize throughout life,
co-existing with rudimentary lungs. Branchize external,
persistent. Eyes with palpebre.

Genera. Proteus, Siren, Menobranchus, &c.

Order IV. aprancuta.

Body long, formed for swimming. Feet four. Cranium
sclid. Tail compressed. Respiration by means of lungs
‘ouly. “Branchiz none. No metamorphosis known.
Genera. Menopoma, Amphiuma, &ce.

Order V. avopa.

Body elongate, slender, anguiform. Feet none. Tail
very short, almost wanting. Lungs one larger than the
other. (The existence of branchie at any period of life

80 AMPHIBIA.

unknown.) Ribs very short. Sternum wanting. Ears
concealed. Impregnation probably internal.
Genus. Cacilia.

I do not offer this arrangement either as wholly original,
nor as absolutely natural ; but it appears to me to be less
objectionable than the others which have been proposed.

It is exclusively to the first and second order that the
few Amphibia which are indigenous to this country be-
long; and I shall confine my observations on the general
characters of the class, and on their physiological peculi-
arities, to those points which may be illustrated by a
reference to our own native species. The most striking
external character by which the whole of these animals
are distinguished is the naked skin. Whilst all the true
Reptilia are covered by some hard and corneous, or, at
least, coriaceous modification of the cuticle, which appears
in the form of plates, as in the Crocodiles and Tortoises,
and in that of scales, as in the Lizards and Serpents, the
Amphibia have no vestige of such a structure ; the skin
being in all cases soft and smooth, and in many instances
always more or less moist. Some of them, as the Sala-
manders aud the Toads, have a number of cutaneous
glands which secrete a viscid fluid, which is said to be
more or less acrid and irritating. This is most conspicu-
ous in the common Salamander of Europe, which when
irritated will often throw out from these glands a quantity
of such white and tenacious fluid. Now the acrid quality
of this secretion forms the sole ground for the reputed
poisonous character of these animals ; for it is a well ascer-
tained truth that not one of them possesses any organ by
which poison can possibly be communicated. The cuticle
is frequently shed, and in various modes, according to the

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 81

habits of these species. Thus the cuticle of the Frog and
often of the Water Newt comes off in shreds in the water ;
whilst that of the Toad is removed at once by the exertions
of the animal, comes away whole, and is swallowed at one
gulp. Of this very curious fact the details will be found
in the description of the common Toad.

But the most interesting circumstance connected with
the functions of the integuments of these animals, or in-
deed with any part of their economy, is their cutaneous
respiration ; or, in other words, the power which the sur-
face of the skin possesses of effecting those changes in the
blood which are usually performed by the lungs or branchiz.
It was ascertained by Spallanzani, that the skin of the
Frog gave out carbonic acid when in contact with the at-
mosphere; but the subject had never undergone that
strict and philosophical investigation by which all its impor-
tant bearings should be ascertained, until Dr. William
Edwards of Paris entered upon the inquiry, the results
of which he published in his admirable work ‘On the
Influence of Physical Agents on Life ;” than which there
does not exist in the whole range of physiological literature
a more perfect example of the manner in which a physio-
logical inquiry ought to be imagined, planned, and con-
ducted, and its results reasoned upon, and described. As
I have endeavoured, in the article already quoted, to give
a short sketch of the principal results of Dr. Edwards’s
experiments, I shall now merely offer a somewhat modi-
fied quotation from that article, rather than enter at length
into the detail, which, however interesting the subject may
be to the physiologist, would be out of place in the present
work, and would be unnecessary to those who alone could
appreciate it: for where is the physiologist who has not
read and admired the original work itself?

82 AMPHIBIA.

we

The existence of cutaneous respiration in the Frog was
proved by the simple experiment of tying a piece of blad-
der over the head so tightly as to prevent the possibility
of communication with the lungs, so as indeed to produce
complete strangulation. The Frogs were then placed
under water; and on examining the air contained in the
vessel after an hour or two, a sensible quantity of carbonic
acid was detected.

On placing Frogs in vessels filled respectively with river
water, and with water which had been deprived of air by
boiling, and inverted over the apertures contained in the
shelf of a pneumatic trough, containing about ninety-eight
pints, those in the latter lived on the average little more
than half as long as those in the aérated water. On trying
the effects of submersion under stagnant water frequently
renewed they lived two months and a half, and then died
from accidental neglect of changing the water. The re-
sults of placing them under running water were similar:
in this case they were confined in a sort of cage, and sunk
inariver. The effects of temperature in all these experi-
ments were amongst the most curious and interesting cir-
cumstances connected with the inquiry. These results
prove that the duration of life under water is in an inverse
proportion to the elevation of the temperature from 32
degrees to about 107, at which point the animals die almost
instantly. But these effects of temperature were found
to be modified by an increase of respiration, whether by
their rising to the surface and breathing the atmosphere,
or by the quantity of aérated water being increased.

Such is a slight glance at the results obtained with
reference to the cutaneous respiration carried on through
the medium of aérated water ; and those connected with
the atmospheric respiration of the same surface are no less

*)

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 85

conclusive. Six Frogs were taken for one of the experi-
ments, and a ligature tied with the most rigid compression
round the neck, so as to exclude any possible passage of air.
One of these lived twenty days in a damp atmosphere,
whilst those which were placed in five ounces and a half
of water, died as soon as all the air contained in that
water was respired, which was in from one to three days.
Another experiment of corresponding tenour was per-
formed by the total excision of the lungs; and of three
Frogs thus treated, two died on the thirty-third, and one
on the fortieth day.

The results of other experiments proved that pulmonary
respiration alone is not sufficient to support life without the
aid of that of the cutaneous surface.

It is very clear that this important function cannot be
carried on unless the surface be constantly kept in a moist
state. The branchiz of fishes and of crustacea, and the
lungs of all pulmoniferous animals, equally require that the
respiratory surface in every modification should be humid;
for as soon as it becomes dry, its function ceases, and the
animal speedily dies. But as the Frog, for instance, is
frequently exposed to a dry atmosphere, it is essential that
there should be some provision made for a constant supply
of moisture to the skin, which has just been shewn to be a
respiratory surface. This is effected precisely as in other
surfaces which perform this function,—namely, by a secre-
tion of fluid from the surface itself. The extent of the skin
is, however, so great that the whole internal moisture of
the animal would speedily be exhausted, unless a reservoir
were provided for an extraordinary demand; and I now
proceed to shew what this reservoir is, and by what means
it is replenished. Every one knows that when a Frog is
hastily seized, or even quickly pursued, it voids a consi-

G 2

84 AMPHIBIA.

derable quantity of water, which is generally, but errone-
ously, supposed to be the urine. This water is limpid and
pure, containing no traces of the usual component elements
of the urinary secretion. It is contained in a sac, which
has also been mistakenly believed to be the urinary blad-
der. This is the reservoir to which I have alluded.
When, therefore, the Frog is happily placed in a damp
atmosphere, or in water, the skin absorbs a quantity of
water, which there is every reason to believe is secreted
into the bladder just mentioned, where it is kept in store
until the dryness of the skin requires a supply for the pur-
pose of respiration, when it is again taken up, and restored
to the surface by which it had been first absorbed.

There can be no doubt that this cutaneous respiration is
of much more frequent occurrence in animals having naked
and moist skin than has hitherto been ascertained ; and
it is exceedingly probable that it will be found to take
place, not only in all the aquatic amphibia, but in the
mollusea, and many others, having integuments of a similar
character.

Allusion having already been made to the metamorpho-
sis of the typical Amphibia, I shall here offer a few general
remarks upon this most remarkable phenomenon. In the
whole of the tribes of Frogs, Toads, and Newts, or, in
other words, in the two orders Anouwra and Uvrodela, the
young animal, as it emerges from the egg, and for a con-
siderable time afterwards, exhibits a form and structure
essentially similar to those of fishes. The organs of respi-
ration and of circulation differ in no important point from
those which exist in that class, and their mode of aquatic
progression is absolutely identical. At a certain period
of their growth a gradual change takes place in the struc-
ture and function of each of these systems, during which

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 85

the little pisciform creature is gradually assuming the gene-
ral characters of the reptile type. I shall here offer a few
illustrations of the changes which take place m each of
these systems, giving the detail of the various modifications
which take place in the different groups, when describing
each form.

The swimming of fishes is effected by the powerful late-
ral motions of the tail and posterior part of the trunk, and
the numerous short oblique masses of muscle, which consti-
tute the greater proportion of the bulk of those parts, are
admirably adapted for the performance of these powerful
and rapid movements. Such is the use, too, to which the
long and powerful tail which belongs to the Tadpole is
applied ; and the wriggling motion given to this organ, by
which the little animal is propelled through the water, by
successive lateral impulses, is similar to that by which
fishes are propelled. In the Anowra this is totally re-
moved by absorption, and gives place to the extensive and
interesting development of the anterior and_ posterior
limbs, particularly of the latter, which are equally adapted
for leaping with great force on the land, or for a rapid and
equal propulsion through the water. In the Urodela, as
the Newts, for instance, this original mode of progression
continues throughout life, and the feet which are ultimately
added to the animal’s organization, are extremely small
and feeble, serving only for awkward and imperfect pro-
gression on land, or along the bottom of the water.

The organs of circulation undergo a no less striking and
far more important change. In the first instance the heart
is single, but the circulation is complete. The blood, after
its systemic circulation, is received from the veins by a
single auricle, and is immediately propelled by a fleshy
ventricle to the branchial arteries, of which one goes to

86 AMPHIBIA.

each leaf of the gills or branchize. From the branchial
capillaries, the aérated blood is received by the branchial
veins, which unite to form an aorta without the interven-
tion of a second ventricle. Every tyro im comparative
anatomy will at once perceive that this is an exact de-
scription of the circulation in fishes; and yet it is taken
from that of the Tadpole of the Newt. I shall not enter
here into a detail of the changes which take place in the
various vessels, by which the branchial vessels become ob-
literated or altered in their course, and minute branches
are augmented in volume, and enter upon new functions ;
such details could only be understood by the experienced
anatomist, and would be out of place. It is sufficient to
say, that by the dilatation of one vessel a second auricle is
produced; that from the last branchial artery a small
branch passes to the air-sac or rudimentary lung, which
ultimately becomes the pulmonary artery ; and that by
other no less astonishing alterations, the transformation of
the branchial into the pulmonary circulation is effected,
and the heart assumes its new character of a trilocular
cavity; possessing, that is to say, two auricles and a
single ventricle, by which the blood which is sent to
the lungs, and that which is distributed to the system
at large, is alike of a mixed character, as in the true
Reptilia.

The respiratory organs are no less surprisingly modified
during the progress of the changes just described in those
of circulation. The total loss of the branchie, which are
removed by absorption, and the development of the little
rudimentary air-sac, so exactly analogous to the air-bag of
fishes, into the most beautiful cellular lungs, are changes
which, but for the ocular demonstration to which they are
yearly submitted, could scarcely be believed. Into the

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 87

anatomical details of the steps by which these changes take
place, it is not my intention to enter; but the general de-
velopment of the new organs, both of these functions and
of that of progression, will be given in the account of each
different form.

We find then that these typical forms of the Amphibia
become essentially altered during the progress of their
growth in all their principal systems of organization ; in
the nervous, the circulating, the respiratory, the digestive,
and the reproductive organs: nor does reproduction ever
take place in these animals until the other changes have
been perfected. But in the perennibranchiate forms, as the
Siren, the Proteus, &c. it seems as if the metamorphosis
were stopped suddenly at that period when the lungs begin
to be developed, before the branchiz have at all diminished
in size or in activity of function. The reproductive organs,
however, go on to their full development, and the animals
never undergo any further change of form or habit, but
continue throughout life to breathe both the atmosphere
by their air-cells, and water by their branchiz, as well as
either medium indifferently by means of their skin. In a
word, the pulmonary, the branchial, and the cutaneous
modes of respiration are in these curious animals going on
simultaneously, although there can be no doubt that the
branchial is the most essential to their well-being, and the
pulmonary the least so.

Enough has probably been said on the general physio-
logy of these animals; for it would not consist with the
object of this work to enter more minutely into the details
of this part of the subject; but to the physiological in-
quirer, few classes of animals present a more extensive or
interesting field of investigation. After all that has been
done, much remains yet to be ascertained, in the functions

88 AMPHIBIA.

both of the earlier and the adult state of their existence,
and.in the phenomena of their transformation.

The species which belong to the British Fauna are more
numerous than they were formerly supposed to be. Of
the true Frogs we have two, of the Toads two, and of
the Newts four, even excluding the Triton vittatus of Mr.
Gray, which is probably a variety of Lissotritor palmipes,
and the British habitat of which appears to be doubtful.

COMMON FROG. 89

ANOURA. RANADZE.

Genus, Rana, Linn.

Generic Character.—Skin smooth, hinder legs very long, formed for leaping ;
the toes palmated. Teeth on the upper jaw, and on the palate.

COMMON FROG.

Rana temporaria. Linn.

Specific Character.—Reddish, or yellowish, or greenish brown, with an ob-
long brown spot behind the eyes; the legs with brown fasciz.
Rana temporaria, Linn. Syst. Nat. I. p. 357. Fuiem. Brit. An. p. 158.
Jzenyns, Brit. Vert. p. 300.
» aquatica, Ray, Syn. Quad. p. 247.

» used, Rosk.. Hist. Nat. Ran.
Common Frog, Penn. Brit. Zool. III. p. 9. SHaw, Gen. Zool. III. p. 96.
t, xxix.

Grenouille rousse, Cuv. Reg. Anim.
Var. Rana Scotica, BELL, Brit. Rept. Ed. 1, p. 102.

Ir in the natural system of animals we must look for the

typical representative of any group in that form im which

90 RANADA.

the distinctive characters of the whole group are most ob-
viously and unequivocally developed,—a test insisted upon,
I believe, by all who have even professed to believe in the
existence of such types of form,—it is in the family Ranade
that we may expect to find the typical character of the pre-
sent class of animals; and the truth of this test is not in-
validated by the absurd and even ludicrous instances of its
breach, of which some of the most strenuous asserters of the
principle have been guilty. To apply to this test only one
or two of the structural or physiological peculiarities of the
class. The most remarkable and important of all is the
change, which has already been mentioned, from the con-
dition of a fish to that of a reptile; and in this respect,
whilst we must consider the permanent pisciform condition
of the Proteus, the Stren, and others, which retain their
branchial respiration throughout life, as an abnormal form
leading towards the fishes, and the Cecilia, on the other
hand, as probably approximating the Ophidian Reptilia ;
the caducibranchiate groups —and especially the present
family—exhibit the phenomena of this metamorphosis to
the greatest extent, the change which they undergo being
certainly more complete than that of any of the other
forms. The cutaneous respiration is another peculiar
characteristic of the class; and there is no doubt that
this function also is enjoyed by the Frogs in the highest
degree.

The innocent and very useful species about to be de-
scribed, is one of the most common of our vertebrated
animals. It is found in almost all parts of this island,
wherever there is a river or a pool, or even sufficient shade
to maintain the degree of moisture necessary to preserve
the respirable condition of the skin ; for the presence of a
considerable quantity of water, although requisite for the

COMMON FROG. Oi

development of the young, is not so for the existence and
health of the perfect animal.

Of the existence of the Frog in Ireland very erroneous
opinions have been entertained. I need not again allude to
the legend of St. Patrick’s extirpatory malediction against
the whole race of reptiles ; but it is worthy of observation,
that even of late years, the belief that Frogs, in common
with Snakes, could not live in that favoured island was
very general. The truth, however, is, that this species is
not only now an inhabitant of that place, but, as will appear
by the following extract, has been so since the very begin-
ning of the eighteenth century. I owe the knowledge of
this passage to my friend W. Ogilby, Esq., who communi-
cated it to me in the following letter ;—

“The following is the extract from Swift’s work of
which I some time since spoke to you, concerning the
introduction of Frogs into Ireland. It occurs in a tract
styled, ‘ Considerations about Maintaining the Poor,’ which,
though without date, I fancy from the context, and other
collateral evidence, must have been written about the year
1726. Among the public grievances of which he complains,
he rather singularly mentions the practice of insuring houses
in English offices; which, it appears, was then becoming
common in Ireland. ‘A third,’ [absurdity] says he, ‘is
the Insurance Office against fire, by which several thou-
sand pounds are yearly remitted to England (a trifle, it
seems, we can easily spare), and will gradually increase till
it comes to a good national tax; for, the society-marks
upon our houses (under which might be properly written,
‘The Lord have mercy upon us’), spread faster and farther
than the colony of Frogs. ‘To this passage, one of Swift’s
editors, I believe Sheridan, adds the following note :—
‘This similitude, which is certainly the finest that could

92 RANADA.

possibly have been used upon the occasion, seems to require
a short explanation. About the beginning of the eight-
eenth century, Dr. Gwythers, a physician, and fellow of
the University of Dublin, brought over with him a parcel
of Frogs from England to Ireland, in order to propagate
the species in that kingdom, and threw them into the
ditches of the University Park, but they all perished.
Whereupon he sent to England for some bottles of the
Frog spawn, which he threw into those ditches, by which
means the species of Frogs was propagated in that king-
dom. However, their number was so small in the year
1720, that a Frog was nowhere to be seen in Ireland ex-
cept in the neighbourhood of the University Park; but
within six or seven years after they spread thirty, forty, or
fifty miles over the country, and so at last by degrees over
the whole nation.” What credit may be due to the note I
will not take upon me to determine, though it appears per-
fectly circumstantial, and given upon the editor’s personal
knowledge; but Swift’s own notice proves indisputably the
fact of the introduction, and the period about which it took
place.”

The respiration in this animal is, as has already been
stated, both pulmonary and cutaneous. The former fune-
tion, that of breathing by lungs, is effected not by succes-
sive alternations of contraction and dilatation of the chest,
a movement, which, as the Frog possesses no ribs, is im-
possible, — but by the act of swallowing air, as in the case
of the Testudinata before described. The mechanism by
which this act is performed is precisely the same in both
cases; the air is inhaled through the nostrils by the dilata-
tion of the pharynx, the esophagus being closed to prevent
its passing into the stomach ; then the posterior openings
of the nostrils being also closed by the application of the

COMMON FROG. 93

tongue, the pharynx is contracted, and the air forced into
the lungs. ‘These organs are of considerable size, lying on
each side of the anterior part of the vertebral column ;
they consist of large cells separated by the most beauti-
fully delicate diaphanous parietes. From this peculiarity
in the respiration, it follows that it can only be performed
when the mouth is closed; and that if the mouth be
gagged open, the animal soon perishes from the cessation
of pulmonary respiration.

The ordinary voice of the Frog is too well known to
require particular description. It is termed croaking, and
is principally heard during the season of sexual excitement.
In the spring every one has heard the neighbourhood of
ponds and ditches, where these animals abound, resounding
with their loud yet not disagreeable notes. When great
numbers are congregated together, the noise heard at a
considerable distance is far from being unmusical, and,
when associated with the return of the genial season, and
the calm of a still mild evening, is far more pleasant and
soothing than many a more fashionable and dearly-bought
musical entertainment.

The food of the Frog usually consists of various kinds of
insects, and of the small species of slug. So voracious are
its habits during the whole of the season at which it feeds,
—for, like other cold-blooded terrestrial animals, it passes
the cold part of the year in entire abstinence,—that it
might become a most important assistant to the gardener
or the farmer in the destruction of those pests of the re-
spective objects of their culture which I have just named.
It will swallow large coleopterous and other insects whole,
and will take several of them at a meal. The quantity of
insects and of slugs, indeed, which would be destroyed by
encouraging these animals, instead of wantonly and un-

94 RANADA.

necessarily persecuting and killing them, would be advan-
tageous to a much greater extent than could at first sight
be believed. This consideration ought surely to weigh even
with those who are inaccessible to the appeals of humanity,
in favour of this innocent and much-persecuted race.

The manner in which the Frog takes its food is very in-
teresting. As in the Toad, the posterior part of the tongue
is free, and being imbued with a viscous secretion at the
extremity, it is suddenly thrown forwards upon the insect,
which, being caught by the adhesive matter upon it, is in-
stantly drawn into the mouth by the sudden return of the
tongue to its former position, and is then swallowed. This
is but the work of an instant; and, indeed, is performed
with such rapidity, as scarcely to be detected without care-
ful watching.

Like the rest of the Amphibia and the Reptilia, the
Frogs retire, on the approach of winter, to their hibernating
retreats, where they pass the dreary season in a state of
absolute torpidity. This is generally in the mud at the
bottom of the water, where they are not only preserved in
a nearly equal temperature, though at a low degree, but
also secured from external injury. Here they congregate
in multitudes, embracing each other so closely as to appear
almost as one continuous mass. On the return of spring
they separate from each other, emerge from their places of
retirement, and recommence their active life by exercising
the important function of the reproduction of their species,
Here we enter upon the most interesting scene in the his-
tory of these animals; for it is here that the peculiar cha-
racters which distinguish them from all other forms, are
most strikingly shewn; and I shall, therefore, enter some-
what in detail into the different steps of the development of
the embryo, and of the changes which take place in the

COMMON FROG. 95

structure and habits of the young animal as it advances
towards its perfect condition.

The impregnation of the female Frog is effected in a
peculiar and very remarkable manner. Whilst in the
reptilia, as in most of the superior vertebrate animals, as
well as in many of the lower classes, the application of the
vivifying fluid to the ova, is rendered certain by actual in-
sertion within the body previously to their expulsion,—and
in the fishes, this is effected after their actual depositions,
—in the Frog it takes place during the passage of the eggs
from the body of the parent. As the season of spring ad-
vances, the renewal of active existence after its temporary
suspension is evinced by the most energetic action of the
procreative orgasm. The male Frog leaps on the back of
the female, and grasps her behind the arm-pits with his fore
legs, for which purpose a temporary development of a
warty protuberance takes place on the thumbs, by means
of which his hold is rendered more firm and secure. So
powerful is this instinct of adhesion, that instances are not
unfrequent of male Frogs seizing upon and remaining firm-
ly attached to the surface of large fishes, from which they
have not been detached without considerable force. Izaak
Walton quotes a passage from an ancient writer which ap-
pears to refer to a fact of this kind. ‘“ But before I pro-
ceed further,” says honest Izaak, “I am to tell you that
there is a great antipathy betwixt the pike and some
Frogs; and this may appear to the reader of Dubravius
(a Bishop in Bohemia), who, in his book of Fish and Fish-
ponds, relates what, he says, he saw with his own eyes,
and could not forbear to tell the reader, which was—‘As
he and the Bishop of Thurgo were walking by a large pond
in Bohemia, they saw a Frog, when the pike lay very
sleepily and quiet by the shore side, leap upon his head ;

96 RANADA.

and the Frog having expressed malice or anger by his
swoln cheeks and staring eyes, did stretch out his legs, and
embraced the pike’s head, and presently reached them to
his eyes, tearing with them and his teeth those tender

999

parts. It appears by the sequel that the bishop’s fisher-
man assured him that ‘‘ pikes were often so served.” Now,
although there is evidently here much of the exaggeration
which may naturally be expected from the astonishment of
ignorance, yet there is no reason to doubt that the main
facts are true. It happens, too, that the sex of the Frog is
incidentally and unwittingly furnished by the writer by his
mention of the ‘‘ swoln cheeks,” which he attributes to the
creature’s malice against his formidable enemy.

I have often heard my father relate an instance of a
similar fact, though with somewhat more adherence to the
simple truth of the case. As he was walking in the spring
on the banks of a large piece of water at Wimpole, the
seat of Lord Hardwicke, he observed a large pike swim-
ming in a very sluggish manner near the surface of the
water, having two dark-coloured patches on the side, which
he thought must be occasioned by disease. A few days
afterwards he saw the same pike floating dead upon the
surface of the water, and having drawn it to land by means
of a stick, he found that the dark-coloured masses, which
he had observed on the former occasion, were two living
Frogs, still attached to the fish, and that so firmly, that it
required some force to push them off with the stick. There
can be no doubt that the diseased state of the pike facili-
tated the approach and adhesion of the Frogs, to which
they were primarily impelled by the sexual instinct before
mentioned.

During the cohesion of the two sexes, then, the female
commences the deposition of the spawn, which is fecundated

COMMON FROG. 97

during its passage. When first expelled it consists of nu-
merous small opake globular bodies, enveloped in a small
glairy, or glutinous mass. This latter substance soon ab-
sorbs a large quantity of water, and, in the course of an
hour or two, each becomes not less than a quarter of an
inch in diameter. The consequence of this augmentation
in the bulk of the transparent mass, surrounding each em-
bryo, is, that all the latter are removed from each other by
a whole diameter of each globe ; and they appear like black
dots regularly distributed throughout a large mass of trans-
parent jelly.

The deposit of the eggs takes place at the bottom of the
water, notwithstanding the assertion of some naturalists,
and of Résel amongst them, that they are expelled at the
surface. The mistake, probably, arose from the mass of
eggs being generally found at the surface; but this arises
merely from the disengagement of gas in the substance of
the glairy envelope, in consequence of partial decompo-
sition.

The changes which now begin to take place in the em-
bryo are most interesting. They have been detailed in a
very minute and satisfactory manner by Rusconi in his
work, already alluded to; and I have taken considerable
pains during the last spring to follow out his investigations,
and by actual observation to correct or confirm his account.
I may here observe, once for all, that, with the exception
of a few of the details in the earliest periods, I have been
able to satisfy myself of his correctness; and in those
points, I believe that I only failed to do so, partly by my
not having obtained the ova immediately after their expul-
sion, and partly by the want of time to enter into all the
necessary minutie of the investigation.

Ihave also to observe that the developement of the young

H

98 RANADA.

is more or less rapid, according to the temperature of the
atmosphere; and that I was enabled to retard or hasten it
by regulating this circumstance. I therefore kept my re-
servoir of eggs in a very cold situation, and occasionally
brought a few of them into my drawing-room for the pur-
pose of observation ; in which place, being in an elevated
temperature, the developement became very rapid. As my
object, therefore, was to ascertain positive facts, rather than
the periods of the changes, which were dependent upon
variable circumstances, I kept no register of the tempera-
ture or of the periods; and I shall, in both these par-
ticulars, give some of the statements of the accurate
Rusconi.

The embryo is found, in the first place, to consist of a
small globular body, one side, or hemisphere, of which is of
a dark brown colour, the other being much paler. In a
very short period after the egg is deposited,—four hours,
according to Rusconi,—a deep furrow across the dark hemi-
sphere divides it into two equal parts, and this is soon
afterwards crossed by another at right angles; a third and
a fourth furrow are produced, and so on, until the whole
surface of this side of the sphere is, as it were, granulated.
This appearance, however, is but transitory, the surface
soon becoming almost smooth. In the course of the second
day, the sphere begins to elongate, and a groove, which
had previously divided the upper part of it into two equal
parts, begins to close up. The head becomes prominent,
the tail begins to shew itself, the little hooks by which it
subsequently lays hold of objects and supports itself, begin
to appear. At this period the examination becomes more
easy, and more interesting. At somewhat more than fifty
hours in an elevated temperature, the head is very well
marked, the tail somewhat elongated, and even the rudi-

COMMON FROG. 99

ment of the membrane, or web, which is destined to form
its fin, is visible. About this time, also, a small projection
takes place on each side of the head, which is the earliest
indication of the branchie, and the muscles of the spine
may just be seen. In figure 2 of the woodcut, I have

SS
given an outline of the embryo in this condition. At this
time the water is seen to flow in a distinct and rapid cur-
rent to the branchial orifice over the rudiments of the
branchiz, which are now just visible, the course of which
current I have indicated by arrows. These parts gradually
become more developed; the body is more elongated, the
branchize more distinct ; the fin extends round the tail and

He

100 RANADA.

partly over the back ; and the head is distinguished from
the body by a slight contraction at the neck; and a short
period more suffices to bring it to the condition represented
in figures 3, 4, of the woodcut, in which the branchiz are
seen to consist of two tubercles on each side, as yet simple
and undivided ; the holders, which are small simple organs
placed near the situation of the future mouth, and which
serve to enable the little animal to attach itself by means
of a viscid secretion at their extremities, have become
longer, the web, or fin, is also enlarged. By this time the
first voluntary motion of the embryo is discovered on the
application of any means of excitement or disturbance ; but
it consists only of a slight movement of the head or tail.
The nostrils are seen more distinctly, but the mouth is
scarcely yet observable, and shortly afterwards the eye, in
a rudimentary state, may be just discerned. The next step
in the developement is a slight division of the branchiz into
lobes, and the appearance of that beautiful and interesting
phenomenon, the circulation of the blood through these
organs. The embryo, which is still confined to a curved
position by the envelopes (fig. 1), is now seen frequently to
extend itself by sudden jerks, as if to emancipate itself
from its confinement, which it eventually does by tearing
the membrane of the egg. The Tadpoles, we see, are now
hatched (fig. 5). According to Rusconi, this takes. place
within four days after the deposit of the eggs, in a tempe-
rature varying only from 23° to 27° Centigr. (73°:4 to
80°°6 Fahr.) ; but certainly in our own climate, in the
ordinary temperature of our spring, it does not take place
until at least a month. As I before observed, the develope-
ment may be greatly hastened by a constant elevation of
temperature, and I was often surprised at the degree to
which this was the case in the course of my own obser-

COMMON FROG. 101

vations; but the comparatively low temperature of our
spring, and the cold frosty nights which occur in March
and April, may well account for such a discrepancy. If
the eggs be deposited at the middle or latter end of March,
it is generally, with us, the latter end of April before they
are hatched. The situation of the mouth is now distinctly
visible, though the opening is but small; and even when it
becomes considerably enlarged it has no power of move-
ment, and there are no distinct lips. The branchiz now
speedily enlarge, and each of the two branches on either
side is seen to consist of about four leaves (figs. 6. 9);
these are sessile upon the body or stem of the branchia ;
they are somewhat granular on the surface, and slightly
irregular in their form; there is also frequently a short
additional branch at the base of the posterior one, as is
shewn in the outline, figure 9. The present state of these
organs, which have now arrived at their maximum of de-
velopment, constitutes one of the most charming objects for
microscopic observation which can be conceived, and to
view which a very high power is not necessary, nor even
desirable. The current of the blood poured in regular
pulsations at each contraction of the heart, passes up
each stem or main branch of the branchie, and a dis-
tinct stream is given off to each leaf; it is propelled to
the extremity, and then returns down the opposite sides
in the most regular manner, and the parts are so trans-
parent that every globule of blood is distinctly and beauti-
fully visible.

This state of things, however, is destined to last but
a short time. No sooner have these interesting organs
attained their greatest developement than they begin to
diminish in size ; they become obtuse (fig. 7), and are gradu-
ally so reduced as to be withdrawn within the branchial

102 RANADA.

cavity, and concealed by a little operculum of the imtegu-
ment. The eyes are now perfectly formed. The holders have
become much diminished in size; the mouth has acquired
moveable lips, and has changed its position from the in-
ferior part of the head to near the extremity, and the little
creature which has hitherto derived its sustenance either
from its own resources or by absorption, now seeks its food
amid softened and decomposing vegetable matter. The
caudal web (fig. 8) has, therefore, become considerably de-
veloped, and serves for very rapid as well as varied loco-
motion. The colour of the body, too, has undergone a
considerable change, having become of a soft olive green,
the abdomen being dotted with golden yellow.

The Tadpole now undergoes but little change in its ex-
ternal form for a considerable time, but increases rapidly in
bulk, and by and by a little tubercle appears on each side
of the vent, which is the rudiment of the posterior extre-
mity; this soon acquires somewhat the form of the perfect
limb, the toes budding, as it were, at the extremity, but it
still continues very short, even in proportion to the dimi-
nutive size of the animal (fig. 10). Meanwhile the anterior
extremities are also budding forth in the same manner, and
gradually assume their distinct and final form.

As the hinder extremities become developed, the tail, the
former organ of progression, is removed by absorption, not
thrown off, as has been erroneously stated. This is a gra-
dual process, the absorption beginning at the apex, and pro-
gressing onwards to the base, until the whole is removed ;
so that the posterior part of the body becomes rounded,
and the cloacal opening, instead of being placed beneath,
is directed somewhat upwards. Fig. 11 exhibits the
young Frog with a small portion of the tail still remaining
unabsorbed.

COMMON FROG. 103

Rusconi complains of having had considerable difficulty
in ascertaining the proper food for the Tadpoles, so as to
preserve them in health during his observations on their
developement. He found, however, by accident, that they
would thrive upon the green sediment which results from
the agitation of decayed vegetable matter in water; and |
have succeeded completely in keeping them on the decay-
ing vegetable matter without any artificial preparation.
In their more advanced period, but still before the growth
of the extremities, they fed indifferently upon animal or
vegetable substances, actually gnawing away the substance
of almost any kind of leaf that was placed in the vessel, as
soon as it became softened. I have reason to believe, also,
that they often killed their own companions, as soon as
these, by the acquisition of their limbs, had nearly assumed
their ultimate form. Suspecting this, I placed in a large
glass globe of water, several Tadpoles, more or less nearly
approaching their final change, and I observed that almost
as soon as one had acquired its limbs it was found dead at
the bottom of the water, and the remaining Tadpoles feed-
ing upon it. This took place with all of them successively
excepting the last, which lived on to complete its change,
and for a considerable time afterwards.

The little animal has now undergone its complete deve-
lopement ; and having become capable of respiring air by
true lungs, and of progressing with great freedom on land
by means of its hinder legs, it comes on shore to feed on
small insects and worms. Such multitudes of these newly
perfected little beings are often found in damp weather en-
Joying their new scene of existence, as to have given rise to
many a story of its having rained Frogs ;—a fable which is
still devoutly believed in many parts ofthe country. They
now grow with great rapidity during the remainder of the

104 RANADA.

year, until the approach of winter warns them to betake
themselves to their places of hibernation. But, in the mean
time, thousands of them have fallen a prey to their nume-
rous enemies; even in the Tadpole state they are devoured
in hosts by the different species of newts, and small fishes ;
and when adult, by pikes, and others of the larger species
of fish, many by the smaller carnivora, such as the weasel
and the polecat, and many by almost every species of
water-fowl, as well as by the Common Snake, of which
they constitute the principal food. Such is the destruction
which thus takes place amongst them at different periods
of their growth, that probably not one in a thousand that
had emerged from the egg in the spring, ever reaches its
winter retreat.

That the Frog is susceptible of being tamed to almost-
as great a degree as the Toad, is proved by the following
anecdote, for which I am indebted to my friend, Dr. Wil-
liam Roots, of Kingston, who informs me that he was in
possession for several years of a Frog in a perfect state of
domestication. It appears that the lower offices of his house
were what is commonly called underground, on the banks
of the Thames. That this little reptile accidentally appear-
ed to his servants, occasionally issuing from a hole in the
skirting of the kitchen, and that during the first year of his
sojourn, he constantly withdrew upon their approach ; but
from their shewing him kindness, and offering him such food
as they thought he could partake of, he gradually acquired
habits of familiarity and friendship; and during the follow-
ing three years he regularly came out every day, and par-
ticularly at the hour of meal-time, and partook of the food
which the servants gave him. But one of the most remark-
able features in his artificial state of existence, was his
strong partiality for warmth, as, during the winter seasons,

COMMON FROG. 105

he regularly (and, contrary to the cold-blooded tendency of
his nature) came out of his hole in the evening, and directly
made for the hearth in front of a good kitchen-fire, where
he would continue to bask, and enjoy himself until the
family retired to rest.

There happened to be at the same time a favourite old
domestic cat, and a sort of intimacy or attachment existed
between these two incongruous inmates; the Frog frequent-
ly nestling under the warm fur of the cat, whilst the cat
appeared extremely jealous of interrupting the comforts
and convenience of the Frog. This curious scene was often
witnessed by many besides the family.

In its general form it is more slender than the Toad,
though less so than many species of true Frog. The head
forming half an oval, or nearly so; the snout rounded; the
mouth horizontal, linear ; the gape very wide, extending as
far as the posterior margin of the orbit; teeth placed ina
single row in the upper jaw and on the palate, very minute ;
none in the lower; tongue soft, fleshy, spatula-shaped and
notched, the anterior portion folded back upon the posterior
when not in use; eyes elevated above the forehead. The
back is generally flat, excepting at the setting on of the
pelvis, where it is sometimes a little raised. The fore-feet
are of moderate size and length, with four toes, of which
the third is slightly the longest, the second notably the
shortest, as is probably the case in all the true Frogs;
hinder legs very iong, and very muscular, extending to more
than half as long again as the body; hinder toes five in
number, long, slender, palmated, the fourth toe being by
much the longest. Skin naked, smooth. The male is
smaller and more slender than the female.

The changes which the colour of the Frog undergoes
both in intensity and in hue, from the variation of tempe-

106 RANADE.

rature, the presence or absence of light, and the influence
of fear, and perhaps of other causes of mental excitement,
although certainly much less striking and considerable, are
scarcely less varied than those exhibited by the chameleon.
The causes of these changes have not, I believe, been ex-
amined, but the subject well deserves a careful and minute
investigation.

The whole of the family to which this species belongs are
liable to great variety of colour, and even of marking ; but
there are certain limits beyond which these variations do
not extend, which although not always easily expressed in
the few words which are convenient for a specific diagnostic
phrase, are yet easily recognised by the eye, when once well
and sufficiently observed.

It is generally brown, inclining more or less to yellowish
or reddish brown on the upper side, spotted irregularly with
black, brown, or brownish grey, with transverse fasciee,
which vary in number, of the same colour on the legs ;_ be-
neath, yellowish white, sometimes with spots similar to
those on the back, but smaller and fewer. ‘‘ The most con-
stant mark,” as Mr. Jenyns well observes, “is an elongated
patch of brown, or brownish black, behind the eyes, on
each side of the occiput: there is also generally more or
less indication of a whitish line running longitudinally
down each side of the back, and enclosing a space paler
than the adjoining regions.”

Inch. Lines.

Total length of the head and body : 2 8
Length of the head : : SU 8
5 hinder leg : : 5 4 0
~ fore leg 1 5

It has been long observed by several naturalists that a
Frog exists in Scotland, of a much larger size than the

COMMON FROG. 107

common one, and it has generally been referred to the
Rana esculenta, or Edible Frog of the continent of Europe.
Thus Mr. Don, in his account of the Plants and Animals
found in Forfarshire, mentions the Edible Frog as to be
met with in the lakes of that neighbourhood, although
rather rare ; and both Shaw and Pennant allude to it, the
former as being “rare in England,” the latter simply in-
corporating it amongst his British Reptiles, but without
mentioning its locality ; and Dr. Fleming merely observes
that it is ‘‘not so common as the preceding.” In July
1833, Dr. Stark exhibited at the Zoological Society a
skeleton of the Scottish species, the following meagre ac-
count of which, occurring in the Proceedings of the So-
ciety, is all that remains of that gentleman’s observations.
“ Dr. Stark exhibited the skeleton of the Edible Frog,
Rana esculenta (Linn.), and stated that this species is
found in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, whence his
specimen was obtained. He pointed out some of the
differences between its osseous structure and that of the
Common Frog, Rana temporaria, Linn.”

Thus one observer after another has gone on, each copy-
ing the error of his predecessor, until Mr. Jenyns sug-
gested the probability that the species described as R.
esculenta, by the only two persons who have assigned any
locality for it, may possibly be a new one. Pennant
describes a Frog under the name of the “ Great Frog,”
as a native of the woods near Loch Ransa in the Isle of
Arran; but he does not give any authority, and from his
description, which, however, is very slight, there is no
doubt that the animal was nothing more than the Common
Toad.

Being naturally anxious to ascertain so interesting a

point, I determined upon procuring all the information in

108 RANADA.

my power respecting it; and on writing to Sir William
Jardine upon the subject, I obtained from him, with his
accustomed kindness and liberality, the opportunity of
examining the identical skeleton upon which Dr. Stark’s
notices were made. My excellent friend Bibron also
kindly sent me several specimens of the true 2. esculenta,
and from these data I came to the conclusion that the Scot-
tish Frog is a new species, to which, from its only known
locality I gave the name of #. Scotica. During the last
spring, however, I received, from Mr, Wolley of Edin-
burgh, numerous specimens of both sexes, and of various
ages of the Scottish Frog, and the result of the most care-
ful examination and comparison which I am able to make,
is the conviction that it is nothing more than a very large
variety of the Common Frog, 2. temporaria. My friend,
Mr. Gray, whose accurate and extensive knowledge of
these subjects, gives great weight to his opinion, and
Mr. Wing, also of the British Museum, a most acute
and intelligent observer, have confirmed this opinion; and
it appears to us that the slight differences which I ob-
served in the osteology, might have been sexual or even
merely accidental. I am much indebted to Mr. Wolley
for his great kindness in enabling me, by a plentiful supply
of specimens, to determine this point, as well as for other
similar attentions which I shall have another opportunity
of acknowledging.*

The specimens were obtained on the Braid Hills, where
these large Frogs are very numerous.

I give in a vignette the crania of the two varieties of
ft. temporaria, and of the £&. esculenta; and the great

* M. Bibron has expressed his doubts whether the R. Scoléea may not be
considered as identical with the common species. Hist. Nat. des Rept. t.
vill. p. 362.

COMMON FROG. 109

similarity of the two former, excepting in size, and the
remarkable distinctness of the latter, will be at once
detected. The left-hand figure belongs to R&R. esculenta,
the middle one to the Scotch Frog, and the right-hand
one to the ordinary form of 2. temporaria.

110 RANADA.

EDIBLE FROG.

Rana esculenta. Linn.

Specific character.—Thumb with two tubercles ; vomerine teeth forming two
small groups ; vocal sacs in the male large and globular ; upper parts of the body
variously marbled ; a yellow or whitish mesial line running the whole length of
the back.

Rana esculenta, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. 12, I. p. 376, No. 15. Daun. Hist. des
Rept. VIII. p. 90. Cu. Bonar. Non. Faun. Ital.

viridis, Linn. Faun. Suecie, p. 94. Roxrsrx, Hist. Ran. p. 53, t. xii.
—xvi. Birr. Hist. Nat. Rept. VIII. p. 343.

Green frog, SHAW, Gen. Zool. ITI. p. 103. t. xxxi.

3°

Tue fact that the true Rana esculenta, so well known in
some parts of the Continent as an article of food, is an
inhabitant of this country, is now perfectly established.

EDIBLE FROG. 111

Its existence as a British species was first recorded in the
“ Zoologist,” in the following notice from Mr. Bond, dated
November, 1843 :*—‘* I have the pleasure of recording in
the ‘ Zoologist’ the capture of the Edible Frog (Rana
esculenta, Linn.) for the first time, I believe, in this
country. Two specimens were taken by my friend, C.
Thurnall, Esq., of Duxford, in Foulmire Fen, Cambridge-
shire, in September last.” Shortly afterwards a charac-
teristic figure was published in the same work; and
subsequently I received some specimens myself from Mr.
Bond, which I had an opportunity of comparing and iden-
tifying with the continental species, having then in my
possession many living ones, which I had received from
France. Mr. Bond relates, in a farther notice in the same
work,} that they were very abundant in that locality, and
expresses his surprise ‘that they were never seen before,
their croaking being so very different from that of the com-
mon frog; the sound is more of a loud snore, exactly like
that of the barn owl (Strix flammea). The whole fen was
quite in a charm with their song.” Mr. Bond proceeds to
say, that “this Frog is a very timid animal, disappearing
on the least alarm, and it is not very easy to catch. It
seems to be entirely a water reptile, never coming on the
land ; at least, [ never could find one out of the water,
like the common species.” The very remarkable and sono-
rous croak belonging to this species had procured for the
Frogs of this neighbourhood the names of ‘“ Cambridge-
shire nightingales,” and of ‘* Whaddon organs;” and I
have often heard my father, who was a native of those
parts, say that the croak of the frogs there was so differ-
ent from that of others, that he thought they must be

* Zoologist, vol. ii. p. 393. + Page 677.

112 RANADA.

of a different kind. It is somewhat remarkable that my
father, who was no systematic naturalist, but a very ac-
curate observer, should have detected, when a boy, now
more than eighty years since, the distinction of the har-
vest mouse and of this species of Frog. The peculiarity
in the croak of the male is accounted for by the existence
of the large vocal sacs, to which farther allusion will be
made.

The Rana esculenta may be at once distinguished from
R. temporaria by the absence of the large distinct black
mark, which in the latter species occupies the space ex-
tending from the eye to the shoulder, and by the existence,
in the present species, of a light line running the whole
length of the middle of the back; the marbling also in
R. esculenta is much more distinct, varied, and beautiful,
and consists partly of circumscribed round spots. The
vocal sacs, which are peculiar to the males, become, when
filled with air in the act of croaking, large globular, blad-
der-like sacs, standing out one on each side of the head,

which do not exist at all in &. temporaria: the vomerine
teeth are placed rather farther back in the common species.
I have observed in #. esculenta a pair of lumbar glands,
which, although less conspicuous, occupy the same position
as in the genus Pleurodema of Tchudi.

EDIBLE FROG. 113

I gave a figure of this species in the former edition
of the present work, taken from a foreign specimen, but
I have thought it better to have the present illustration
taken from an individual which is a native of the British
locality before referred to. The figure above referred to 1s
repeated below: it will enable the reader to compare the
English with the foreign variety.

The following notice, in a recent number of the ‘‘ Zoo-
logist,” * shews that the extension of this fine species
may be easily effected. “ Mr. Henry Doubleday having
received from Foulmire Fen, some living specimens of this
truly beautiful Frog, turned them loose near a pond
not far from his residence. They soon migrated to an-
other pond, and there have made themselves perfectly at
home.”

The peculiarities both in habits and appearance which
characterize this species in England, agree, as far as they
have been observed, with those mentioned by Dumeril and
Bibron, and other continental authors. ‘“‘ It is,” say these
eminent naturalists, “essentially aquatic. It inhabits in-
discriminately running or still waters, the borders of rivers,
rivulets or streams, lakes or ponds, salt or fresh marshes,
or even ditches and simple pools of water. Sometimes
they are seen on the leaves of water-lilies, or on the herb-
age of the banks, where they love to bask in the warm
sunshine; but at the slightest noise they strike into the
water, and do not again expose themselves until certain
that all danger is past.

The croaking of the male is exceedingly powerful, and
is produced by means of the air which it forces into the
globular vocal sacs, which are situated near the corners of
the mouth, and causes to vibrate in them; they croak

* Page 2268,

114 RANADA.

by day as well as by night. The female, being without
these organs, produces only a slight groaning noise.

The eggs are deposited in France from the end of
March until the beginning of May. It would be interest-
ing to observe exactly the period when this function
begins and ends in this country, and to ascertain how
far it is hastened or retarded by the temperature of the

atmosphere.

\\Fae
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Dy, nu)
“yy

COMMON TOAD. Ue

ANOURA. BUFONID.

Genus, Bufo. Toad.

Generic character.—Body inflated ; skin warty; parotids porous; hind feet
of moderate length, toes not webbed ; jaws without teeth ; nose rounded.

COMMON TOAD.
PADDOCK.
Bufo vulgaris. Laurent.

Specific character.—Lurid brownish grey, with reddish brown tubercles; body
much inflated.

Bufo, Ray, Syn. Quad. p. 252.
Rana Bufo, Linn. Syst. Nat. I. p. 354.
Bufo terrestris, Rose, Ran. t. xx.
» vulgaris, LAURENT. Fem. Brit. Anim. p. 159. Jznyws, Brit. Vert.
p- 301.
Toad, PENNANT, Brit. Zool. III. p. 14.

Common Toad, Suaw, Gen. Zool. 111. p. 138, t. xl.
Crapaud commun, Cuv. Reg. Anira. II. p. 109.

Few animals have ever suffered more undeserved perse-
cution as the victims of an absurd and ignorant prejudice
than the Toad. Condemned by common consent as a

disgusting, odious, and venomous reptile, the proverbial
re

“a

116 BUFONIDA.

emblem of all that is malicious and hateful in the human
character, it is placed under universal ban, and treated
as an outlaw both by man and boy throughout the coun-
try. Should I be able, by the following history of its
habits and manners, to shew that it is, on the contrary,
highly useful, perfectly harmless, inoffensive, and even
timid, and susceptible of no inconsiderable degree of dis-
criminating attachment to those who treat it with kind-
ness, it is hoped that some few individuals may be thus
rescued from those barbarous acts of cruelty to which the
species is almost everywhere subjected. The mistaken
notions to which I have alluded are indeed pardonable in
the ignorant and uneducated; but that one professing to
be an observer and an admirer of the works of nature,
should have suffered his prejudices to dictate such a violent
and false philippic against this harmless creature, as the
following passage from Pennant, is not easily to be ac-
counted for, and scarcely to be forgiven :—

He calls it ‘‘the most deformed and hideous of all ani-
mals; the body broad; the back flat, and covered with a
pimply dusky hide ; the belly large, swagging, and swelling
out ; the legs short; its pace laborious and crawling ; its
retreat gloomy and filthy: in short, its general appearance
such as to strike with disgust and horror.” The whole of
his account teems with expressions of the same kind; and
it would be difficult to find a more striking instance of the
influence of prejudice in the mind of any professed admirer
of nature, or a more unpleasing example of partial misre-
presentation. The true lover of Nature, on the contrary,
who, in the simplicity and singleness of heart which always
belongs to that character, seeks even in the less attractive
of her works for those proofs of wisdom and beneficence
by which they are all characterised, will rather find in the

COMMON TOAD. 1G

very peculiarities which excited the spleen and disgust of
our celebrated drawing-room zoologist, only fresh indica-
tions of the same discriminating wisdom, and the same
never-failing, though often, to the superficial observer,
mysterious and veiled beneficence.

The Toad belongs to a family, the sluggish habits of
which are remarkably distinct from those of the lithe and
active animals of which the Frog is the type. Terrestrial
in its general abode, it requires not the powerful paddles of
the latter to propel it rapidly through the water, and its
safety consists rather in concealment than in the power of
escaping from its enemies. It bears, in fact, the same rela-
tion to the Frog that the terrestrial Salamander does to the
Water Newt. Like the rest of the amphibia, it becomes
torpid during the winter, and chooses for its retreat some
retired and sheltered hole, a hollow tree, or a space amongst
large stones, or some such place, and there remains until
the return of spring calls it again into a state of life and
activity. Its food consists of insects and worms, of almost
every kind. It refuses food which is not living, and, in-
deed, will only take it at the moment when it is in motion:
such at least is the result of my own observations upon the
habits of this animal, which have been neither few nor
brief. The Toad, when about to feed, remains motionless,
with its eyes turned directly forwards upon the object, and
the head a little inclined towards it, and in this attitude it
remains until the insect moves; when, by a stroke like
lightning, the tongue is thrown forward upon the victim,
which is instantly drawn into the mouth. So rapid is this
movement that it requires some little practice as well as
close observation to distinguish the different motions of the
tongue. This organ is constructed as in the Frog, and the
surface being embued with a viscid mucous secretion, the

118 BUFONIDA.

insect is secured by its adhesive quality. When the prey
is taken it is slightly pressed by the margins of the jaw;
but as this seldom kills it, uniess it be a soft tender larva,
it is generally swallowed alive ; and I have often seen the
muscles of the Toad’s sides twitch in a very curious manner,
from the tickling movements of a hard coleopterous insect
in the stomach. It will also take earth-worms of consi-
derable size, and it is a very curious sight to watch the
manner in which the powerful and writhing worm is se-
cured. If the Toad happen to take it by the middle, the
extremities of the worm are twined with great force and
activity around the muzzle in every direction, in its at-
tempts to escape ; but the Toad pushes one portion after
another into its mouth, by means of the fore feet, until it
all disappears, when it is swallowed whole.

For the following very curious and almost marvellous
statement, I am indebted to the Rev. J. Sladen, of Ninfield,
who kindly communicated it to me in the following letter,
which I give verbatim and entire, and without attempting
to account for the extraordinary fact :—

€- Sin, Ninfield, Sussex, Feb. 14, 1836.

‘“‘As you are now engaged in writing a history of British
Reptiles, Iam induced to send you an account of a fact
that has lately come to my knowledge, thinking it may be
thought by you worth recording.

‘The fact I have to relate was witnessed in the month
of August 1814, and the scene of it was the Fairlight
Downs, near Hastings; the exact spot being part of an
open and bald height facing the sea, and looking down upon
a glen covered with brambles, &c. The hour was about
noon, and the sun was shining powerfully at the time.

“A gentleman was taking a walk with two companions,

COMMON TOAD. 119

when on arriving at the spot above described, they saw what
was to them a totally unprecedented sight. A Toad was
squatted on the ground, with its front elevated, holding
the head ofa viper in its mouth. The viper writhed its
body occasionally, as if trying to escape, but its exertions
were to no purpose. After watching the two animals for a
short time, one of the party attempted to separate the vic-
tim from its enemy with a stick; but failing in this, he
threw both together into the glen below. The counte-
nance of the toad evinced much ferocity, and its eyes
glared. The entire head of the viper was in the Toad’s
mouth, which seemed completely filled in consequence, and
its jaws were perfectly closed; and yet it did not appear
at all inconvenienced by the mouthful, respiring apparently
without effort.

“The gentleman who, with his two companions, wit-
nessed this, and who has related it to me, is the Rev. John
Phillips, Vicar of Ninfield, near Battle, and I am his curate.

“ Should this relation be as curious as it appears to me,
it will doubtless be worth your notice; but should it be
nothing unusual, I must beg you will pardon my thus
troubling you, and I may be permitted to remain,

“¢ Sir,
‘* Your humble servant,
‘“‘ And well-wisher in the cause of Natural History,
(Signed) ‘* Epwarp H. M. Stapen.”

‘¢ Further to authenticate this account, I have requested
Mr. Phillips to add his signature.

(Signed) ‘‘ Joun Puriurrs.”

Like the other Amphibia, and the Reptilia generally,
the Toad sheds its skin at certain intervals, the old cuticle
coming off, and leaving a new one which had been formed
underneath in its stead. There are some very remarkable

120 BUFONID A.

circumstances connected with this process, which I detailed
many years ago to the Zoological Club of the Linnean So-
ciety, and of which the following is the substance. Having
often found, amongst several Toads which I was then keep-
ing for the purpose of observing their habits, some of
brighter colours than usual, and with the surface moist and
very smooth, I had supposed that this appearance might
have depended upon the state of the animal's health, or
the influence of some peculiarity in one or other of its
functions: on watching carefully, however, I one day ob-
served a large one, the skin of which was particularly dry
and dull in its colours, with a bright streak down the mesial
line of the back; and on examining further I discovered a
corresponding line along the belly. This proved to arise
from an entire slit in the old cuticle which exposed to view
the new and brighter skin underneath. Finding, there-
fore, what was about to happen, I watched the whole de-
tail of this curious process. I soon observed that the two
halves of the skin, thus completely divided, continued to
recede further and further from the centre, and become
folded and rugose; and after a short space, by means of
the continued twitching of the animal’s body, it was brought
down in folds on the sides. The hinder leg, first on one
side and then on the other, was brought forward under
the arm, which was pressed down upon it, and on the
hinder limb being withdrawn, its cuticle was left inverted
under the arm; and that of the anterior extremity was
now loosened, and at length drawn off by the assistance of
the mouth. The whole cuticle was thus detached, and
was now pushed by the two hands into the mouth in a
little ball, and swallowed at a single gulp. I afterwards
had repeated opportunities of watching this curious pro-

cess, which did not materially vary in any instance.

COMMON TOAD. 121

The reproduction of the Toad is in all essential points
similar to that of the Frog. The ova are ina similar man-
ner impregnated during their passage, and their immersion
in water is equally necessary for the developement of the
embryo. But instead of being expelled in a mass, they
are arranged in a double series, placed alternately, and
perfectly regular. The jelly-lhke mass in which the em-
bryos are enveloped, forms a continuous line about the
eighth or sixth of an inch in thickness, and extending to
the length of three or four feet. The ova are deposited
in the spring, about a fortnight later than those of the
Frog, and it is not until the approach of autumn that the
young ones, having cast off their Tadpole form, come to
seek their food on the land. The Tadpole is smaller and
blacker in all the stages of its growth than that of the
Frog; but there are no other peculiarities which are at
all popularly interesting.

The stories of Toads having been found in the very sub-
stance of the wood of a tree, and in the midst of a solid and
hard rock, are too numerous, and too generally asserted and
believed, to be passed over here, although I have to regret
that, after many and urgent inquiries, and the examination
of several asserted cases of that kind, I am unable to throw
any light upon this doubtful and mysterious question.
Some years since I had a Toad sent me by a person of the
highest credit, with the assurance that it had been taken
alive out of a mass of indurated clay, of great depth, and
that it had died immediately after being exposed to the
air. But this case, like most, if not all, others of the
same kind, is liable to the objection that the Toad most
probably fell into the hollow where the men were at work,
and was taken up by them in ignorance of the mode in
which it had come there. Numerous experiments haye

122 BUFONIDA.

been made in order to try whether the Toads would die
on being artificially embedded in masses of clay, of plaster
of Paris, in wooden boxes surrounded by plaster, and in
other similar circumstances; but hitherto all have failed,
although in some of them the animals have certainly lived
for a much longer period than could have been expected,
prolonged sometimes to many months, or even to between
one and two years. Upon the whole, it appears to me
that whilst the many concurrent assertions of credible per-
sons, who declare themselves to have been witnesses of the
emancipation of imprisoned Toads, forbids us hastily to
refuse our assent, or at least to deny the possibility of such
a circumstance, it must be confessed that we still want
better and more cautious evidence, to authorize our im-
plicit belief in these asserted facts. The truth probably is,
that a Toad may have lain hid in the hollow of a tree,
during perhaps a whole autumn and winter, and found
itself on the return of spring so far enclosed within its
hiding place as to be unable to escape. As this animal
requires but little respiration, and consequently but little
food to support life, especially when in a state of entire
inactivity, the smallest opening would be sufficient to ad-
mit the requisite passage of air, and even the occasional
ingress of a small insect; and afterwards, when the tree
was cut up, the Toad may have been found enclosed, and
the opening may have escaped detection. To believe that
a Toad enclosed within a mass of clay, or other similar
substance, shall exist wholly without air or food, for hun-
dreds of years, and at length be liberated alive, and capable
of crawling, on the breaking up of the matrix, now become
a solid rock, is certainly a demand upon our credulity
which few would be ready to answer.

That Toads may be rendered very tame, and be made to

COMMON TOAD. 125

distinguish those who feed and are kind to them, there are
abundant facts to testify. I have possessed a very large
one which would sit on one of my hands, and eat from the
other; and the story of Mr. Arscott’s Toad in Devonshire,
related in Pennant’s British Zoology, is too well known to
need repetition.

The opinions formerly entertained of the properties
of the Toad, were pre-eminently absurd. It was highly
poisonous, and this not only from its bite; its breath, and
even its glance were fraught with mischief or death. The
water which it expels from the reservoir communicating
with the cloaca, and the object of which I have already
explained in speaking of the Frog, was supposed to be the
urine, as it is generally, indeed, up to the present time, and
was believed to be highly poisonous. It is almost unne-
cessary to add, that this water is pure and limpid, and
wholly without any deleterious qualities. The only cir-
cumstance which can be said at all to favour the bad cha-
racter which attaches to this animal is, that there are
situated upon the back and sides numerous secreting folli-
cular glands, the secreted matter from which is somewhat
fetid and of an acrid quality. Dr. John Davy was, I be-
lieve, the first who ever minutely examined into its true
nature. The following is an abstract of Dr. Davy’s ob-
servations on this subject. ‘‘ After adverting to the cor-
rectness of the popular opinion respecting the poisonous
nature of the Toad, which the professed naturalist has
generally rejected, the author proceeds to describe the seat
of the poison, which is chiefly in follicles in the skin, and
which on pressure exudes from it in the form of a thick
yellowish fluid, which on evaporation yields a transparent
residue, very acrid, and acting on the tongue like extract
of aconite. It is neither acid nor alkaline; and since a

124 BUFONIDA.

chicken inoculated with it received no injury, it does not
appear to be noxious when absorbed, and carried into the
circulation.

“Dr. Davy thinks that the principal use of this poison
is to defend the reptile against the attacks of carnivorous
animals; he also remarks, that as it contains an inflamma-
ble substance, it may be excrementitious ; it may serve to
carry off a portion of carbon from the blood, and thus be
auxiliary to the function of the lungs. In support of this
idea, the author observes that he finds each of the pulmo-
nary arteries of the Toad divided into two branches, one of
which goes to the lungs, and the other to the cutis, ramify-
ing most abundantly where the largest follicles are situated,
and where there is a large venous plexus, seeming to indi-
cate that the subcutaneous distribution of the second branch
of the pulmonary artery may further aid the office of the
lungs, by bringing the blood to the surface to be acted upon
by the air.” *

I have extracted the latter part of this passage to shew
how beautifully the independent observations of two phy-
siologists, so eminent as Dr. Davy and Dr. William Kd-
wards, bear upon and illustrate each other; as will be
obvious to every one who recollects the account I have
already given of the cutaneous respiration of the amphibia,
as discovered and explained by the last-named philosopher.

The usual pace of the Toad is neither leaping nor run-
ning, it is rather a kind of crawl; and on being alarmed, or
threatened with danger, it stops, swells its body, and, on
its being handled, a portion of the cutaneous secretion
which I have just mentioned exudes from the follicles, and
a discharge of the limpid water, which has been before

* Abstracts of the Phil. Trans. Part II. p. 263. For the whole paper see
the Phil. Trans. for 1826, Part II. p. 127.

COMMON TOAD. 125

alluded to, immediately takes place. Its quickest move-
ment is an imperfect leap.

The general form of the Toad is certainly far from pre-
possessing. The body is puffed out and swollen; the head
large, flat on the top ; the muzzle rounded, and yery obtuse.
There are no teeth either in the jaw bones, or on the palate.
There is above the eyes a slight protuberance, studded with
pores; and the parotids are large, thick, prominent, and
porous, secreting an acrid fluid. Body covered with warts,
which are larger above, and more numerous beneath. Fore
feet with four toes, not at all palmated ; hind legs of mode-
rate length ; the toes five in number, and slightly palmated.
The colours are liable to some variation, but are always
much lighter and brighter immediately after the removal of
the old cuticle ; the upper parts are of a dirty, lurid, or
blackish grey, with sometimes a slight greenish tinge ;
tubercles more or less brown; beneath, dirty yellowish-
white, sometimes spotted with black.

Dimensions of a large specimen :—

In. Lines.
Total length : : : : o 8 5
Hinder leg . ; i : : 3 7
Fore leg : : : ; ~ 2

126 BUFONID A.

ANOURA. BUFONID£.

Hill!
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ol

il

HK

\
\\Vi

i

NATTER-JACK TOAD.

Bufo calamita. Laur.

Specific character.—Light yellowish brown, clouded with dull olive ; a bright
yellow line along the middle of the back.

Rana Bufo, var. B. GEL. Syst. Nat. Lin. I. pt. ii. p. 1047.

5 Lubeta, Turron, Brit. An. p. 80.
Bufo Rubeta, Fiem. Brit. Anim. p. 159.

, terrestris fetidus, Rosex, Hist. Ran. p. 107, t. xxiv.

>» Calamita, Laur. Amph. 27. JENyws, Brit. Vert. p. 302.
Natter Jack, PENNANT, Brit. Zool. III. p. 19.

Bufa mephitica, var? Suaw, Gen. Zool. p, 152.

Tus species, although found in considerable numbers in
certain localities, is far from being commonly met with.

Pennant, who appears to have been the first to publish it

NATTER-JACK TOAD. 127

as a British reptile, obtained his knowledge of it from Sir
Joseph Banks; and we find from his account that it had
been observed both “on Putney Common, and near Re-
verby Abbey, Lincolnshire, where it is called the Natter
Jack.” It is common on Blackheath, and in several other
places in the neighbourhood of London ; I have found it in
considerable numbers near ponds and ditches not far from
Deptford, where they appear to have congregated for the
purpose of breeding. Mr.Jenyns mentions Gamlingay
Heath in Cambridgeshire, and two or three localities in
Norfolk. It would appear that Dr. Fleming was not aware
of its being an inhabitant of Scotland, as he does not add
this to the formerly known localities ; but Sir W. Jardine
has favoured me with the following account of its habitat
in that part of the kingdom :—‘‘ The Natter-Jack Toad is
taken in a marsh on the coasts of the Solway Frith, almost
brackish (certainly so in winter), and within a hundred
yards of spring-tide high-water mark. It lies between the
village of Carse and Saturness (Southerness) point, where
I have found them for six or seven miles along the coast.
They are very abundant.” Sir William has sent me some
specimens, which are in every respect the same as those
found in the neighbourhood of London. The greatest
number which I have ever known, however, is in my
own garden at Selborne, where the species is far more fre-
quent than the Common Toad. Dr. Broomfield has also
found it in numbers on Short Heath near that place.

The habits of this species differ in some respects from
those of the Common Toad. It is Jess sluggish in its move-
ments, and its pace is ordinarily quickened to a sort of run,
its body being raised considerably above the ground during
its progress. It is most probable that its reproduction, and
all the stages of its development resemble those of the

128 BUFONIDA.

Common Toad ; but on these subjects some additional im-
formation is required. It is far more capable of sustaining
drought than the common species, and is frequently found
in dry situations, resorting to the water only for the pur-
pose of breeding. Thus I have often found several of
them lying under the shallow layer of turf covering the
top of the wall of a ha-ha at Selborne, exposed to the
powerful rays of the summer’s sun, in the hottest and
driest situation in the garden; and this, in fact, appears
to be their favourite resort.

The general form of this animal is similar to that of the
last-named species; it is, however, less tumid; the eyes
are much more prominent,—and are, in fact, elevated above
the upper surface of the head. The porous protuberances
behind the head are also less developed; but the warts on
the surface of the skin are even more prominent than in
the True Toad. The hinder legs are scarcely so long as
the body; the toes are less palmated than even in the
Common Toad ;—a structure in accordance with its still
more terrestrial habits; and the rudimentary sixth toe—
a tubercle which has been so considered, which we find in
the Common Toad—is here absent. The general colour
is a light yellowish-brown, or olivaceous, clouded with a
darker hue, and a distinct yellow or whitish line along the
middle of the back. The warts, or glands, on the body,
and the large glands behind the head of a reddish hue.
The under parts yellowish, with black spots; the legs
marked with black bands.

Dimensions :-—
In. Lines.
Total length “* : - - ae 8
Length of foreleg. . . : 1 3
Length of hinder leg : : : <2 2

COMMON WARTY-NEWT. 129

URODELA. SALAMANDRADE.

Genus, Triton. Laur.

Generic Character. — Tongue semi-globular, slightly free at each side, free
and pointed behind. Palate with a double longitudinal series of teeth. No
parotids nor glans along the back. Body covered with warty tubercles ; glan-
dular pores behind, and over the eyes, and a longitudinal series of distant similar
pores along each side. Toes without nails; four on the anterior, and five on the
posterior feet. Dorsal and caudal crests (in the male) separate.

COMMON WARTY-NEWT.

GREAT WATER-NEWT.

Triton cristatus. Laur.

Specific Character.— Upper lip overhanging the lower, but without any _
distinct lobe.

Lacerta palustris, Linn. Syst. Nat. I. p. 370. SHaw, Gen. Zool. III.
p- 298, t. Ixxxii.

Salamandra aquatica, Ray, Syn. Quad. p. 273.

es cristata, Daup. Hist. Rept. VIII. p. 233. Cuv. Rég. Anim.
(edit. 2.) II. p. 116.

Triton cristatus, Laur. Spec. Med. p. 39, et 146, sp. 44. Firz. Class.
Rept. p. 66, sp.5. Bonar. Icon. Faun. Ital.

» palustris, Fuem. Brit. An. p. 157. JENyNs, Brit. Vert. p. 3038.
Molge es MeErRETT, Syst. Amph. p. 187, sp. 8.
Warty Lizard, Penn. Brit. Zool. III, p. 23, t. iii.

130 SALAMANDRADA.

Ir an instance were wanting to exemplify the obvious
fallacy of the opinion that external form is alone sufficient
to indicate the relations of animals, it would be impossible
to select one more striking and remarkable than that of the
tailed Amphibia; and it is certainly not a little extraordi-
nary that Linneus himself, notwithstanding the acuteness
which generally enabled him to pierce through the fal-
lacious indications offered by external appearance, and to
seize upon the true relations of individuals and groups
without being misled, like most others of his day, by form
alone, should in this instance have failed to detect the
latent affinities of the group, and to appreciate the relative
value of its characters. A want of more accurate know-
ledge, or, perhaps, a degree of timidity arising from the
novelty of the position which he took, prevented this great
man from always following out the principles which his
genius impelled him to adopt, and doubtless led him to
the inconsistencies with which he has been too severely and
indiscriminately charged. Be that as it may, he certainly,
in the present instance, not only searched not below the
surface, but failed even to appreciate the importance of the
character of the skin itself; a reference to which, and to
several peculiarities in external structure, might have led
him to suspect, at least, the relations which this part bears
to that of the tailless Amphibia, and especially of the Frogs.

The generic form to which the present species belongs,
exhibits all the characters of the Amphibia in as striking a
point of view as either of those which have been already
mentioned, The naked and respirable skin, and the com-
pleteness of the transformation, are not less obvious in the
present than in the former group. The whole of them are
characterised also by an elongated body, by the existence
of four legs, and by an aquatic life.

COMMON WARTY-NEWT. 13]

The separation of the present animals from the genus S‘a-
lamandra was an essential step, for which we are indebted
to Laurenti, although there may be some objection to the
name Triton, which he applied to them, on account of its
having been already assigned by Linneus to the inhabitants
of certain shells. As, however, the principle upon which he
did this—namely, the adoption of a distinct nomenclature
for the animals and their shells—has long since been very
properly exploded, and as the application of the name Triton
to a genus of Buccinoid Mollusca, although universally
adopted, is of later date than its application to the animals
now under consideration, it must be retained by these.

This species, which grows to the length of six inches, is
the largest found in this country. It is not at all un-
common in ponds and large ditches, where it lives upon
aquatic insects, and upon any other small living animals.
It feeds during the spring upon the Tadpole of the Common
Frog, which it devours with great voracity, and thus
doubtless co-operates with the smaller fishes to keep under
the immense increase of Frogs, which, but for this, and
similar means of destruction, would necessarily take place,
and almost realize amongst us a repetition of the Egyptian
plague. They will also devour the smaller species of
Newt, Tr. punctatus, which they seize with great apparent
ferocity, and hold fast in spite of all the efforts made by
the victim to escape. I have taken them more than once
in the act of swallowing an individual of the smaller spe-
cies, which was so large as to occasion great difficulty and
delay in the act of deglutition. The following fact in their
habits is also worthy of remark :—“ It is,” says the Prince
of Musignano, “a wonderful circumstance, that an animal
so tenacious of life, should die with the most violent con- °
vulsions on having a little salt sprinkled upon it.”

K 2

ise SALAMANDRADA.

The aquatic progression of these animals is effected prin-
cipally by means of the tail; and during the act of swim-
ming, the legs are turned backwards, so as to admit of the
smallest possible degree of resistance; when floating quite
still on the surface of the water, which they frequently do,
the feet are stretched out at right angles to the body, and
the toes spread as widely as possible; and at the bottom
of the pond they creep by means of their little weak feet,
which also serve for their progression on land.

In the early spring the distinction between the males
and the females in external form, which during the winter
had been slight and inconspicuous, becomes more decided.
The dorsal crest, which in this species is high and deeply
incised, and the superior and inferior membrane of the tail,
become developed to a remarkable degree. The male
seeks and follows the other sex; and the tail of the former
is vibrated, and, as it were, smacked, by a motion similar
to that of smacking a whip, several times during’only a few
moments. Rusconi asserts, and he has been followed by
most subsequent writers, that impregnation is effected
without contact; but I have reasons, which it is unneces-
sary for me to detail here, for believing this to be a mis-—
take, at least in some species. It is sufficient for me to
state that those reasons are the result of my own repeated
observations. The manner in which the eggs are deposited
is very interesting and curious. The female, selecting some
leaf of an aquatic plant, sits, as it were, upon its edge ; and
folding it by means of her two hinder feet, deposits a single
egg in the duplicature of the folded part of the leaf, which
is thereby glued most securely together, and the egg is
thus effectually protected from injury. The manner in
which this is effected is highly interesting, and may be
readily observed by any one, as the animals are sufliciently

COMMON WARTY-NEWT. 133

common in many ponds and ditches, and may generally be
easily obtained by means of a minnow net. In the neigh-
bourhood of London, especially, they are to be found in
numbers every spring ; and I have had no difficulty in pro-
curing as many as I wished for the purposes of observation.

From this facility of obtaining them, the number of eggs
which each produces, and the time which is occupied in
the act of deposition, it is astonishing that the mode above
described was never observed until of late years, and that
. many excellent naturalists have given most erroneous ac-
counts of the process. Spallanzani, for instance, declares
that the eggs fall at once to the bottom of the water when
deposited ; and Cuvier asserts that they are produced by
several at a time, attached to each other like beads. These
mistakes have arisen from the fact that the precaution was
not taken of placing aquatic plants in the vessel with the
Newts, the consequence of which has been that, in the
first place, the eggs of course fell to the bottom of the ves-
sel; and, in the next place, as they fell into contact with
each other, they became united by the mass of tenacious
matter by which they are surrounded. This shews how
important it is, in all observations on the habits of animals,
made on individuals in confinement, to place them in cir-
cumstances as nearly natural as possible, and never to rest
satisfied by any results obtained under artificial restraints.
Rusconi has the merit of first publishing an accurate account
of the process in question, and I have observed it many times,
and long before I was acquainted with Rusconi’s book.

As soon as the female has in this way deposited a single
egg, she quits the leaf ; and after the lapse of a short time
seeks another, there to place another egg.

I now proceed to describe briefly the developement of the
embryo in this species, which, as it is the largest, is the

134 SALAMANDRAD&.

most easily observed. The period when the deposit of the
eggs commences depends upon the season; but the time
when the greater number are produced, is during the
months of May and June; and it is worthy of notice, that
the different species of Newt are found depositing their
egos during a much longer period of the summer than the
ecaudate Amphibia, such as the Frog and Toad. At the
time I have mentioned, if the leaves of various species of
aquatic plants be observed, many of them will be found
folded together, and within the fold a single egg of the
Newt will be discovered. It is, however, necessary for
accurate observation from the commencement, that the
female Newt be taken and placed in a vessel of water with
the plants in question, that she may deposit the egg under
the eye of the observer. The best plant for the purpose is
the Polygonum persicaria, which is ordinarily chosen by
the animal in its natural habitat. A large glass globe is
a good vessel for the purpose of observation ;, but if it
be wished to employ a larger one, I may be allowed to
recommend the largest sized foot-bath made of white ware.
This vessel I have often used for keeping many aquatic
animals; and if a layer of Roman cement be placed at
the bottom, and a few pebbles, or a stone of sufficient
size be fixed by the cement at one end, the objection to
the slipperiness of the vessel will be obviated, and the
animal will also have the opportunity of coming above the
surface at pleasure.

The egg, when first deposited (fig. 1 of the woodcut), is
very lightly tinged with buff; it is surrounded by a glairy
envelope, to which it is not attached, but rotates unre-
strainedly within it. The first obvious change which takes
place is the elongation of the white embryo, which in a few
days exhibits somewhat of a division into a cephalic, an

COMMON WARTY-NEWT. 135

abdominal, and a caudal portion ; and shortly afterwards,
as at figure 2, the developement has advanced so far as to
afford indications of the branchiz on each side of the neck,
and even a slight enlargement at the part where the ante-
rior feet will hereafter make their appearance. In the
space of a few days more, the state of the embryo is such

as we observe at figure 3. The different lobes of the
branchiz are now distinctly seen, though still simple; the
anterior pair of lobes are the holders, by which the little
animal afterwards attaches itself to leaves, or other bodies ;
and behind the branchiz may be observed a slight emi-
nence on each side, which is the rudiment of the anterior

136 SALAMANDRADA.

foot. At this stage a double dorsal line of minute brown
spots may be seen. All these characters continue to be
hourly developed ; and in the state which is represented at
figures 4, 5, it quits its envelope, which has been continually
becoming elongated to accord with the changing form of
the embryo. On first issuing from the egg, it swims about,
says Rusconi, without apparent consciousness of any im-
pediments, striking against a leaf, or the sides of the vessel,
and immediately adhering by its holders to the substance
against which it happens to strike, and remains thus sus-
pended for a time, as if asleep; and then, without any
apparent excitement, swims off to another part. The
developement of the young Tadpole, for such it must now
be considered, progresses with considerable rapidity after
its exclusion from the egg. In a fortnight, or three weeks,
according to the temperature, it has acquired the condition
exhibited in figures 6, 7. The branchiz now offer one of
the most beautiful and elegant objects in nature, as well
as one of the most interesting. Observed even with the
nakéd eye, the leaf-like division of these organs present
a most pleasing subject of contemplation ; but viewed in
the microscope, the branchial circulation excites the great-
est delight and surprise. The blood, which has now be-
come red, ascends by the branchial arteries, and returns
by the veins after having undergone the necessary change
of decarbonization ; and the globules of the blood are seen
accelerated by momentary jerks through the vessels. The
transparent tail affords a beautiful example of the systemic
circulation, as the former organs do of the respiratory ;
and in both instances the transparency of the parts is such
as to present no obstacle to the view. The eyes have now
acquired their permanent character; the mouth has become
terminal, and the anterior feet have acquired distinct digi-

COMMON WARTY-NEWT. 137

tations. In consonance with this latter change, the hold-
ers, which had been the only previous means of station,
being now unnecessary, have become almost entirely ab-
sorbed. At figure 8, the further developement of the an-
terior feet, which have acquired four toes, and the rudi-
mentary existence of the posterior pair, have considerably
approximated the little animal to its permanent condition ;
but the branchie have acquired a still more extensive
developement, and the leaflets of which they are composed
are much more distinct. In figure 9, which is of the
natural size, we see the animal much changed. The body
is now bulky, the colours are nearly those of the perfect
condition, and the transparency of the body, which has
previously been such as to afford the most agreeable oppor-
tunity to examine the internal structure, and to watch the
functions which were going on, has given place to the
opacity of the adult animal. The branchiz, however, still
remain, and have assumed a firmer consistence, a more
opaque appearance, and a deeper colour. From this
period the branchiz become gradually absorbed, and the
lungs are in the same proportion developed, until at length,
towards the close of autumn, the young animal has acquired
its perfect condition, and has quitted its aquatic for an
atmospheric mode of respiration. In fact, like the Tad-
pole of the Frog, the metamorphosis of which we have
already traced, it has passed from the state of a fish to
that of a reptile.*

* In the perennibranchiate forms of the Amphibia, such as the Siren, the
Proteus, and others, the developement of the sanguiferous and respiratory
systems is arrested at that point of their growth which we have just been ob-
serving in the present animal, at figure 9, at the point where the lungs have
just begun to assume their functions, and before the branchie have undergone
any diminution in their volume, Here they permanently remain ; and exhibit
the extraordinary phenomenon of co-existent pulmonary and branchial re-
spiration.

138 SALAMANDRADA.

This species is much more durably aquatic in its habits
than the common smaller one, Lissotriton punctatus. It
occasionally, indeed, leaves the water, and I have found it
hibernating under stones; but I believe this is not usual ;
it commonly remains torpid at the bottom of ponds and
ditches, until the warmth of spring recalls it into activity.
During this season of retirement the male loses his fine dor-
sal crest, and the web of the tail also becomes considerably
diminished ; but even before the return of the warm season
this characteristic sexual ornament becomes developed, to
be again lost in the following winter. It does not fall off;
but, like the tail of the Tadpole, is gradually absorbed.
The Newts ordinarily shed their skin in the same way
as other aquatic amphibia; it comes off in shreds, and
is washed away as it becomes loose, but in Lissotriton it
has been observed on some occasions to come away entire.

The head of this species is flattened ; the muzzle obtuse
and rounded; the gape nearly straight, and extending a
little beyond the eyes; teeth numerous, minute; the upper
lip slightly pendulous, covering the margin of the under
jaw when the mouth is closed, but not forming a distinct
lobe. The trunk is continuous with the head, the neck
being only distinguished by a small fold of integument be-
neath. The body is thick, but not ventricose ; round, cor-
rugated, and covered with small warts or tubercles. There
are no parotids; but there are two patches of simple pores
on each side of the head, and a line of similar pores run-
ning along each side, and somewhat distant from each
other.

The tail is about two-fifths of the entire length, consider-
ably compressed, the upper and under margins sharply and
abruptly carinated. The anterior feet, when brought for-
wards, extend a little beyond the snout, each having four

COMMON WARTY-NEWT. 139

flattened toes, of which the third is the longest, then the
second, then the fourth, and the first is the shortest. Hinder
feet longer and thicker than the fore, each with five toes, of
which the first is the shortest, the fifth longer, then the se-
cond, the third and fourth being equal, and the longest.
The upper parts of the animal are blackish brown, or yel-
lowish brown, with darker round spots ; under parts bright
reddish orange, with round black spots; sides dotted with
white; sides of the tail, particularly in the male sex, of a
beautiful shining pearly white, which, like the rest of the
colours, becomes brighter in the spring.

In the breeding-season the male acquires a deep, flexible,
indented crest, which extends the whole length of the back,
along the mesial line. It is separated from the correspond-
ing crest of the tail by a distinct hiatus. The crest is of a
lighter colour than the back. It is confined to the male,
and disappears during the winter.

Dimensions :—
In. Lines
Total length 9 : - : Ge ot 6
Length of the head and body : : 3 3
Length of the tail 2 4

140 SALAMANDRADSA.

URODELA. SALAMANDRAD

hia VY.
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Miata

STRAIT-LIPPED WARTY-NEWT.

Triton Bibronit. Mihi.

Specific Character.—The same as 77. cristatus, excepting that the upper lip
is perfectly straight, meeting the lower, and not overhanging it. The skin, and
particularly that of the head, much more rugous and more strongly tuberculated.
Colour darker.

Triton marmoratus, BIBRON, in Proc. Zool. Soc. non Latr.

Or the existence of this second species of tuberculated
Triton we were ignorant, until my friend, the late M.
Bibron, detected it in the collection of the Zoological So-
ciety, and from the character of the lip believed it to be the
Tr. marmoratus of Latreille. In the course of the last
spring I had several, both of this species and of Tr. crista-
tus, living; and have now before me the specimen belong-
ing to the Society upon which M. Bibron’s opinion was
founded, as well as one of the true marmoratus, which he
has kindly sent me from Paris. I have also examined

STRAIT-LIPPED WARTY-NEWT. 141

several in the British Museum, where they were confound-
ed with the 7. cristatus. Upon a careful comparison of
the whole, I am induced to consider that the new English
species is distinct from 7. marmoratus, and that it is not
only new to the British Fauna, but a hitherto undescribed
species. I have, therefore, ventured to assign to it a specific
name, and I have chosen that at the head of this article, as
a proper compliment to the first of Erpetologists, and one
of the most amiable of men.*

The principal distinctions between the species are the
following:—In Triton Bibronii the skin is remarkably
rugous, and the tubercles are more numerous and more
elevated than in 77. cristatus. The tubercle at the base
of the inner toe on each foot is much smaller, and in some
cases scarcely perceptible. The most tangible peculiarity,
however, is in the form of the upper lip, which in the pre-
sent species is perfectly straight, whereas in 7’. cristatus
it considerably overhangs the margin of the lower jaw.
By this character the two species may be at once distin-
guished. With regard to coloration and markings there
is but little difference; I have thought, however, that
the present species is somewhat darker, and the spots on
the sides less distinct.

The structural characters which distinguish 7r. Bibronit
from Tr. marmoratus, are also comparative and slight. In
the latter, the rugosity of the skin is less considerable, and
the upper lip, instead of being absolutely straight as in our

* This talented and amiable man has, during the passing of this edition
through the press, fallen a victim to consumption, which had for years been
making its secret inroads upon his constitution, In the midst of the awful
scenes of the late Revolution in France, surrounded by the fury of faction and
the horrors of civil war, his gentle spirit passed into its rest, happier than those
who survived him in having been spared the later scenes of that sanguinary and
most disgusting conflict.

142 SALAMANDRADA.

species, has a slight enlargement towards the junction of the
lips. But the markings and coloration are widely different ;
the upper parts being beautifully marbled with grey, with
a white line along the mesial line of the back, and the belly
irregularly mottled.

I give a comparative view of the head of 7’r. cristatus
and of Tr. Bibronii, by a reference to which any one may
readily determine the species.

COMMON SMOOTH-NEWT. 143

URODELA. SALAMANDRAD.

Genus, Lissotriton. Mihi.

SMOOTH-NEWT.

Generic Character.—Tongue, teeth, and feet, as in the genus Triton. Skin
smooth ; two patches of pores on the head ; none on the back or sides. Dorso-
caudal crest continuous.

COMMON SMOOTH-NEWT.

SMALL NEWT, EFT, OR EVET.

Lissotriton punctatus.

Specific Character.—Dorso-caudal crest of the male festooned, very deep ; tail
tapering gradually to a point, without any appendage ; hinder feet with the toes
free.

Lacerta aquatica, Linn. Syst. Nat. I. p. 370 (?) Suaw, Gen. Zool. III.
p- 298, t. lxxxiil,

144 SALAMANDRADA.

Lacerta maculata, Sueprr. in Linn. Trans. VII. p. 53. Turron, Brit.
Faun. p. 79.
Salamandra punctata, Daun. Rept. VIII. p. 267. Larr. Salam. de France,
p: 53, sp. 6, t. vi. f. 6.
2 Triton Palustris, Laur. Spec. Med. pp. 39, 145, t. iv. f. 2.
» aquaticus, Fem. Brit. Anim. p. 158, sp. 7.
» punctatus, Firzinc. Nat. Class. Rept. p. 66, sp. 8. Bonar. Icon.
Faun. Ital. JENyNs, Brit. Vert. p. 304.
Molge punctata, Merr. Syst. Amph. p. 186, sp. 4.
Brown Lizard, PENN. Brit. Zool. III. p. 23, t. ii.

Tue size of this small and common species would distin-
guish it at once from the former in its adult state, and from
younger individuals it may be readily known by the differ-
ence of colour, and the absence of all warts and tubercles
on the skin, which is, indeed, almost as smooth as that of
the Frog. This latter character has led me to believe that
the two forms might with great propriety be considered
as generically distinct, upon the same principle as that
which has led to the separation of the Toads from the
Frogs; although it must be confessed that, in the latter
case, the habits of the two groups offer a much greater
discrepancy, the relations between the Frogs and Toads
presenting rather an analogy with that between the smooth
Newts and the true or terrestial Salamanders. Thus a
tolerably continuous chain of affinity may be traced from
the smooth Newts, through the tuberculated Newts, and
the Geotritons of the Prince of Canino, to the true terres-
trial form of the Salamanders, which last are even more
strikingly characterized by a tuberculated and porous skin
than either of the other forms.

The Common, or Small Newt, is found in almost every
ditch and pond, especially in those in which the waters
are clean, in considerable numbers; and affords food to the
larger species just described, as well as to different kinds
of fish. Its own food consists of small aquatic insects,

COMMON SMOOTH-NEWT. 145

both in their perfect and, especially, in their larva state,
and of small aquatic worms and Mollusca; they also
rise to take gnats, &c. which settle on the surface of the
water.

The reproduction. and metamorphosis of this species
differ very little from those of the former. I have observed
that in depositing their eggs, they do not so constantly
place them within a folded leaf, but frequently in the axille
of the leaves ; in which situation I have very often observed
the females in the act of placing them, and sometimes by
two, three, or four together. The pursuit of the male after
the female differs also in some respects. He follows her
in swimming for a considerable time; they do not, as in
the former instance, necessarily rest upon the ground ;
and the tail of the male is doubled forwards in a sort of
loop, and vibrated with a rapid tremulous motion. ‘The
changes which take place in the developement of the em-
bryo are similar to those already described in the former
species. The seasonal changes, however, are still more
curious and varied than in the two species of Triton, and
deserve a more detailed description, especially as these
differences have led to much misunderstanding by the
establishment of erroneous specific names, and consequent
confusion of synonyms.

In the month of June the young animals have in many
cases lost their branchiz by absorption, and very soon
afterwards a great number of them at least quit the water,
and remain on land. Many of the adults also become
terrestrial soon after this period, creeping about amongst
the herbage in the neighbourhood of the water, or in damp
places, frequently concealing themselves amongst the roots
of shrubs and plants, and sometimes even venturing into
damp cellars. The males about this time begin to lose the

L

146 SALAMANDRADA.

membranous crest and enlargement of the caudal web,
which had distinguished them during the spring. The
colours also of both sexes become more dull, and the male
especially loses in a measure the bright and pleasing tints

which characterize him during that season. The red tips
to the crenations of the crest and tail are of course no
longer seen as these parts become absorbed ; but the colour
of the body is also more obscure, and the spots less dis-
tinct ; the belly, which has been of a bright orange passing
into red, is now paler and less vivid.

It is probable that the period at which the young lose
their branchize varies in some degree according to cireum-
stances connected with temperature, food, and other causes;
as they are sometimes taken with the branchie still re-
maining on them, when conspicuously larger than other

COMMON SMOOTH-NEWT. 147

individuals, which have lost these organs.* The growth
of the young animals during the summer and autumn is
very rapid; so that they attain nearly their adult size the
first year. Very early in the winter the crest of the male
begins to make its appearance, and by the beginning of the
year it is conspicuous.

The result of a partial and hasty observation of these
circumstances has been that naturalists have described the
same species, in different conditions, as being specifically
distinct. Shaw, in his General Zoology, asserts that the
Common Newt is “altogether a terrestial species,” and
contests even the statement of Linnzus, that it inhabits
water during its larva state. ‘I can,” proceeds Dr. Shaw,
“safely affirm that I have more than once met with speci-
mens in perfectly dry situations, so extremely minute as
scarcely to equal half an inch in length, which appeared to
differ in no respect, except in magnitude, from the full-
grown animal.” Now it is here evident that he had met
with the young and the adult of this species when they had
left the water for their autumnal visit to the land, and the
branchie of the one, and the dorsal crest of the other were
both lost. The Rev. Revett Sheppard has still farther con-
fused the question ; but, as these mistakes arose altogether
from the want of a proper consideration of the characters
of the group, and of closer observation of the habits of the
animals, and as both these points are now cleared up, it is
unnecessary to enter farther into the subject.

For the following interesting observations on the mode
in which the change of skin is effected by this species
I am indebted to Mr. James Salter :—

* There is in the Museum of the Zoological Society an interesting Series of
Specimens exhibiting these facts. They were collected by Mr. Blyth, and the

bottles are furnished with his observations.
ih

148 SALAMANDRADA.

“During the latter part of the month of August of the
present year (1848) I kept a little male newt—Lissotriton
punctatus—in a basin of clear water, quite alone.

“The markings of the skin of the newt at this time
were bright and distinct, and the dorsal crest was deep.
At eight o’clock, on the morning of the 30th, I noticed
that it was particularly dull and would scarcely move on
being touched, and I feared that it was going to die from
its confinement and want of food: it was very thin, but
its epidermic covering had undergone no change, and its
summer dress was as bright as ever. Upon again looking
at the little animal at eleven o’clock, I found that it had
assumed the colours and form of the newt in the winter,
approximating those of the female, and in the water its
entire exuvium was floating about so thin and trans-
lucent as to look a mere film, but still quite perfect, ex-
cepting the fissure by which the body had emerged.

“The newt was now of a brown colour and the black
spots on its surface less distinct ; the dorsal crest, which
before was deep, was merely represented by a ridge, and
the tail had diminished by one-third of its vertical depth,
this decrease being principally on its dorsal surface. The
integument was very thin, the cutaneous blood-vessels
being quite apparent through it. It was very active and
swam about the basin with renewed life and vigour. The
slough was a perfect cast of the whole body, limbs and
tail; it was quite entire and not torn or broken in any
part, excepting that it had been split straight down the
middle line on the ventral surface, from the symphysis of
the lower jaw to the point of the tail, and had thus simply
peeled off the body, beginning from the belly and passing
off the sides and then from the back taking away the

dorsal erest. It is remarkable that there was no fissure or

COMMON SMOOTH-NEWT. 149

erack in the cuticle from the legs and feet, but it had
slipped off the limbs exactly as a glove would if pulled by
the extremities of the fingers, and was not inverted ; in this
respect resembling the slough from the tail of the snake
and slow-worm,—the tail in them being said to slip out of
its covering ‘like a sword out of its scabbard.’

“The little sheaths of the legs, feet, and toes, were
very beautiful, they were almost transparent, excepting
the points corresponding to the black markings of the
skin; here they were blackish, and their integrity was
so complete that when removed from the basin the
water did not run through them, but distended them lke
tiny gloves.

“Tt is singular that the colour of the newt should
have been so much altered by merely removing an almost
colourless cuticle, but I think that this most probably
arose from the partial washing off of the soft refe mucosum
on the removal of the harder cuticle; for certain it is,
that the colour of the newt, as I saw it, after it had thrown
off the slough, added to the colour of the slough itself
would not give the same hue as it exhibited prior to the
change.

“The manner of shedding the epidermis by shreds, which
I have repeatedly seen during the spring and summer,
never appears to affect for any length of time the
colour and general aspect of the newt, simply making the
part from which it has come rather lighter for a few
hours ; and pieces of epidermis may be seen to peel off the
dorsal crest without in any degree altering its form. May
not this partial casting off of the cuticle—this desquama-
tion—during the summer be connected with the very
abundant growth of epidermis which occurs at this season ?
And may not the entire shedding of the slough with the

150 SALAMANDRADA.

dorsal crest, as I have just described it, be the normal
manner in which the animal makes its seasonal change of
dress ?”

It was on this species principally that Spallanzani tried his
well known experiments on the reproduction of portions of
the extremities and of the tail; and he found that the same
member will be reproduced several times in succession of
being cut off, and this with the bones, muscles, vessels, and
nerves belonging to its original state. Its tenacity of life,
like that of most other cold-blooded vertebrate animals, is
a remarkable feature in its functional character. It has
been frozen in a solid block of ice, and when slowly thawed,
it has appeared scarcely injured.

The food of this species is similar to that of the larger
species. Like them, it not only eats aquatic insects and
small Mollusca and worms, but swallows the tadpoles of the
Frog and Toad with great avidity.

It is almost unnecessary to say that the accusation of
being poisonous, so generally believed by the lower classes
in most parts of the country, is wholly unfounded.

The word Eft, or Evet, by which the whole of these
animals are designated in many parts of the country, is
Anglo-Saxon; ‘“‘ Efete,—an Eft, a Newt, a Lizard,” says
Somner. “J know not,” says Skinner, ‘ whether from
Ef-an, equalis, from the smoothness and evenness of the
skin.” Junius suggests that Newt is corrupted from an
evet, a nevet, a newt.

The whole of the skin in this species is quite smooth ;
there are no tubercles, but on the head are two rows of
pores. ‘Tail terminating in a sharp point. The lip of the
male is slightly lobed in the spring, but becomes straighter
when it loses its crest towards winter. The crest of the
back and tail in the male are, during the season of repro-

COMMON SMOOTH-NEWT. 151

duction, very much developed, and are continuous ; the
margin is crenate throughout its length, and posteriorly
deeply festooned. The colour varies very much in the
course of the year, and even in different individuals at the
same period. That of the male is also very different from
that of the female. The former is brownish grey above,
passing into yellow beneath, which in the spring becomes a
rich bright orange; marked everywhere with round dark
spots of unequal size. On the head are two or more
longitudinal streaks. The crenations of the crest, in the

spring season, are often tipped with bright red or violet.
The female is usually light yellowish brown, or even
buff with scattered brown dots, and the belly often quite

plain.
In. Lines.
Total length . : : ‘ eS 7
Length of tail : F : : 1 8

This species appears to be liable to considerable varia-
tion in colour and markings. I possess a female specimen
which is of a very dark brown above, and the belly mi-
nutely punctated with black; and there is a space or band
running along the side almost bare of spots. But the most
remarkable variety is that which has been described by
Mr. Gray and after him by Mr. Jenyns as a species, under
the name of 7riton vittatus, the ground colour of which is
white, “‘ with unequal black spots ; tail black ; belly, under
sides of the legs and tail, and a broad streak along each
side of the body and tail, white.” I have carefully exa-
mined the specimens in the British Museum, and am

152 SALAMANDRAD A.

convinced that it is to be considered as a variety only of
the present species; there is not the slightest structural
difference between them, they are the same in size and
form. It is also, in all probability, the Salamandre cein-
turée of Latreille. Its claim to a British locality rests, as
Mr. Gray informs me, upon its having been found in the
British Museum in a bottle containing other British speci-
mens, and marked ‘“ England.” There is no reason, there-
fore, to doubt that they are British, and there is ground
for believing that they were taken at no great distance from
London.

Having given my own reasons for my entire conviction
that Triton vittatus of Gray is a variety only of the pre-
sent species, I think it right, in justice to Mr. Gray, to add

COMMON SMOOTH-NEWT. 153

the following extract of a note which I have received from
him on this subject :-—

“ My Salamandra vittata, which has been figured by
Guerin, who has adopted my name, belongs to the same
group as the former [ 7riton cristatus|. It agrees with it
in having the crest interrupted over the loins, and chiefly
differs from it in having smaller tubercles, and in colour,
It is easily known both from S. palustris [ Tr. cristatus |,
and from Triton punctatus, by the wide black-edged white
streak along the lower part of each side of the body, &e.
The head is much larger and more depressed than that of
any of the varieties of Tr. punctatus.”

I have only to add that I differ entirely from these opi-
nions of Mr. Gray, and that the last-named character was
only found in one specimen of those of the British Museum,
the others having the head of the same proportional size
as in Lissotriton punctatus. The exception was probably
accidental.

154 SALAMANDRADA.

URODELA. SALAMANDRAD.

Sores

PALMATED SMOOTH-NEWT.

Lissotriton palmipes.

Specific Character.—Hind feet, in the male, perfectly palmate ; tail truncate,
terminating in a short slender filament ; back flattened, with a raised line on
each side, extending from above the eyes to the base of the tail; dorsal crest
with the margin even.

Salamandre Suisse, Razoumowskl, Hist. Nat. du Jorat, p. 111.
s palmipéde, LATREILLE, Hist. Nat. des Salam. de France, t. vi. f. 7.
p- 55. Sonnint, Rept. II. p. 248.
Salamandra palmipes, Daun. Hist. Nat. des Rept. VIII. t. xeviii. f. 2, p. 253.
Triton palmipes, Depy, in Zoologist, p. 2233.

As the error which I committed in the former edition of
this work—in considering a remarkably developed form of
L. punctatus as the L. palmipes of continental authors,

PALMATED SMOOTH-NEWT. bao

into which error I was led by trusting that the accuracy of
my lamented friend Bibron, so generally to be depended
on, was absolutely infallible,—has been subsequently cor-
rected from various quarters, and as the true L. palmipes
has been found extensively distributed in this country,—
I think it right to state the history of this discovery some-
what in detail.

It was at the end of April 1843, that I received, through
the present Dean of Westminster, a communication from
Mr. Baker of Bridgewater, respecting a new species of
Newt which he had discovered in that neighbourhood ;
and on the 6th of May, that gentleman kindly forwarded
to me several specimens of what has since proved to be the
true L. palmipes. The prominent characters of the per-
fectly palmated feet, and the filamentary appendage to
the tail, as well as the differences in the markings, are
particularly alluded to in this, the earliest notice of the
species as a native of Britain. I kept several specimens
for some time in a glass globe, where they throve well; but
as, during the autumn, they lost the caudal appendage,
whether from absorption or from its being nibbled off, I
waited for further opportunities of describing the species
from specimens in their full spring-dress. Meanwhile I
gave it the provisional name of L. appendiculatus. Cireum-
stances occasioned my intention to be postponed from time
to time ; until Mr. Wolley discovered the same species in
the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and communicated the
discovery to the Zoologist, in a short but satisfactory no-
tice,—and to myself in a letter accompanied by numerous
living specimens, It is not necessary for me to quote the
observations of Mr. Wolley, as they may be referred to in
the Zoologist ; in which publication there subsequently ap-
peared further communications from Mr. Baker and Mr.

156 SALAMANDRAD&.

Wolley, some excellent observations on the nomenclature of
the Newts by Mr. Newman, and finally, a short but most
clear and decisive note from M. Julian Deby, who at once
set the question at rest, by giving a comparative view of
the tails of this and of the common species, with notes of
their distinctive characters, and a short account of the Con-
tinental authorities on the subject. The figure in Dandin of
his Salamandra palmipes is indeed so characteristic, that
had I consulted, as on any other occasion I should have
done, this excellent author, I could not have committed the
mistake into which I was led by implicit reliance upon an
authority which never, on any other occasion, failed me.

The first intimation we have of this species as dis-
tinct, is in the ‘ Histoire Naturelle du Jorat,” of M.
Razoumowski, who there terms it “ Salamandre Suisse.”
Latreille, with great propriety, changed this name to that
of ‘“* 8. palmipéde ;” in which he was followed by Sonnini.
It inhabits the midland countries of Europe, having been
found, as M. Deby observes, ‘‘ by Fournelle in the depart-
ment de la Moselle, by Sturm in Germany, by Razou-
mowski in Switzerland, by Latreille in France, and by
De Selys, Van Haesendonck, and myself in Belgium.”

I now proceed to detail the principal distinctions
which exist between this and the common British species,
LL. punctatus.

The whole animal is smaller; the head flatter, broader
in proportion, and beautifully marbled; the body has two
distinct lateral carine above, and two less conspicuous ones
beneath, giving to it somewhat of a quadrate form. The
crest is straight, and much less elevated than in the other
species, and begins further back on the neck. The hinder
feet of the male are palmate ; entirely so in the summer,
less so in the autumn, and towards winter the web is

PALMATED SMOOTH-NEWT. 157

scarcely broader than in Z. punctatus in the full season ;
the tail is not much more than half the depth, and termin-
ating rather abruptly, and is furnished at its extremity with
a small filament, which varies in length from two to four
lines; and in the female dwindles to a mere mucronation.
The colours of the back and sides are more clear and bright,
although generally darker. ‘The spots are more numerous
and often confluent; and the tail has two distinct longitu-
dinal fascie of spots, with occasionally a few between
them; but the inferior margin is invariably and distinctly
pale and immediate. The female is ordinarily paler than
the male; but the spots on the tail are in general more
numerous, smaller, and disposed to become confluent.

This interesting species has now been found in very
various localities. Mr. Wolley has the following interest-
ing note in the Zoologist, of its extreme northern habi-
tat :—“‘ I have to report the existence of our recently
ascertained Newt, in the extreme north of the island. On
the Ist of August I found several females and one male in
a little fresh-water peaty pool, a few hundred yards from
high-water mark, on the side of the hills which rise from
Loch Eribol, and on the west side of the loch. It is an
inlet of the sea, about sixteen miles to the east of Cape
Wrath, in the north coast of Sutherland.” The same
gentleman had previously recorded its existence in the
neighbourhood of Edinburgh. In England, in addition to
the first recorded locality in which it was discovered by
Mr. Baker; my relative, Mr. James Salter, found it plen-
tiful in a pond near Ryde, in the Isle of Wight, from
whence | have since received numerous specimens from
Dr. Bell Salter, of that place, who obtained them from a
pond at Brading ; and the former gentleman has informed
me that he has found it in tolerable plenty ‘“‘in a pond

158 SALAMANDRADA.

within three miles of Poole, in Dorsetshire, on the heath
between Constitution Hill and Kinson.” It is extremely
probable that it will be found to be much more gener-
ally distributed than has hitherto appeared. Mr. James
Salter has communicated the following facts respecting
those found in the latter locality, which appear to me
too interesting to be lost. This letter is dated December
13, 1848 :— I took from this pond eight or ten males
and several females. The males were brighter coloured
than those I took in the Isle of Wight, but in other
respects the same. I scraped from the bottom of the
pond, owt of the mud, a male L. punctatus, and its semi-
torpid state contrasted greatly with the vigour and activi-
ty of the other species. A female L. palmipes had in its
stomach a good-sized, whole, recently taken earth-worm.

‘“‘ It is worthy of remark, that in no ponds where there
were hundreds of LZ. punctatus in the summer, have I been
able to find any now in the adult state, excepting the
single individual before referred to. I have, however,
found hosts of very young ones, some just above the tad-
pole state, with only two legs, and others with four legs
and large branchie. Is not this very remarkable for the
13th of December ?

“In the pond where I took ZL. palmipes, there were
young ones about as far advanced, and these were pal-
mipes, as the appendiculate tail was already conspicuous.
In this latter pond there were also thousands of very small
tadpoles, not above a week old, if so much; these were
doubtless palmipes also.

“T have thus had an opportunity of observing its win-
ter, and comparing it with its summer, dress. The differ-
ences are these: In winter the dorsal crest is diminished

by about one-third, although it is never very deep, and the

PALMATED SMOOTH-NEWT. 159

tail is also lessened by about one-fourth of its vertical
depth. The palmation of the hinder feet of the male is
completely altered ; instead of being webbed like a duck’s
foot, it has now each toe simply fringed with skin, and the
fringes are joined at the bases of the contiguous toes. The
ridges on the back do not alter, and the caudal filament
remains undiminished.”

The palmation does, however, in some instances remain,
with scarcely any change, up to the commencement of
winter.

The colour of the male and its markings are somewhat
duller in the winter than in the summer, but this change is
much less considerable in the present species than in L.
punctatus. The female, as in the other species, undergoes
no seasonal change.

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HARVEY. BRITISH MARINE ALG. 8vo, 21s.; Coloured, 31s. 6d.
—-, FLORA CAPENSIS. 8yvo, vols. i. & ii., 12s. each; vol. iii., 18s,
———_, THESAURUS CAPENSIS. Vols. i. &ii., 21s. each.
—_——, JINDEX GENERUM ALGARUM. 8vo, sewed, 2s. 6d.
——-——. NEREIS BOREALI AMERICANA. Royal 4to, sewed, £3 3s,
——-——-. SEASIDE BOOK. Fourth Edition, foolscap 8vo, 5s.

HASLAM. PERRAN-ZABULOE. THE CHURCH OF S. PIRAN. Fools-
cap 8vo, 4s. 6d.

HENFREY. ELEMENTARY COURSE OF BOTANY. Post 8vo, 12s. 6d.

———. RUDIMENTS OF BOTANY. Foolscap 8vo, 3s. 6d.

——-——. SIX BOTANICAL DIAGRAMS FOR ILLUSTRATING

Lectures, 15s. 2

———. THE VEGETATION OF EUROPE. Foolscap 8vo, 5s.

HEWITSON. COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE EGGS OF
British Birds. Third Edition, 2 vols. 8vo, £4 I4s. 6d.

DESCRIPTION OF 100 NEW SPECIES OF HESPE-

ridez. Parts 1 & 2, 8vo, sewed, 6d. each.

EXOTIC BUTTERFLIES. Vols. i—iii., 4to, £5 5s. each;

continued in Quarterly 5s, Parts (66 published).

ILLUSTRATIONS OF DIURNAL LEPIDOPTERA. Parts
1-3, 4to, sewed, 25s. each.

VAN VOORST’S ALPHABETICAL LIST OF BOOKS. 5

HINCKS. CATALOGUE OF THE ZOOPHYTES OF THE SOUTH OF

Devon and Cornwall. 8vo, sewed, 3s.

HOLMESDALE NATURAL-HISTORY CLUB PROCEEDINGS. 8vo, ls.

annually.

HUNTER. ESSAYS AND OBSERVATIONS. Edited by Owen. 2 vols.
8yo, 31s. 6d.

IBIS. A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY. 6s. each.
INSECTA SAUNDERSIANA. Parts 1-8, 8vo, sewed, 3s. each.

INSTRUMENTA ECCLESIASTICA. First and Second Series, 4to, sheep,
£1 11s. 6d. each.

JEFFREYS. BRITISH CONCHOLOGY. Vols. i—iv., post 8vo, 12s. each.
(An Atlas containing Coloured Figures of all the Species is preparing.)

JENYNS. MEMOIR OF PROFESSOR HENSLOW. Post 8vo, 7s. 6d.
OBSERVATIONS IN METEOROLOGY. Post 8vo, 10s. 6d.

——. OBSERVATIONS IN NATURAL HISTORY. Post 8vo, 10s. 6d.

JESSE. AN ANGLER’S RAMBLES. Post 8vo, 10s. 6d.

JOHNSTON. HISTORY OF BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 2 vols. 8vo, £2 2s.

INTRODUCTION TO CONCHOLOGY. 8yvo, 21s.

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE EASTERN BORDERS.
Vol. 1. (Botany), 8vo, 10s. 6d.

JONES. GENERAL OUTLINE OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE
Animal Kingdom. Third Edition, 8vo, £1 11s. 6d.

-——-—, LECTURES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF ANIMATIS.
Vols. i. & ii., post 8vo, 12s. each.

——. THE AQUARIAN NATURALIST. Post 8vo, 18s.
KELAART. FLORA CALPENSIS. 8vo, 10s. 6d.

PRODROMUS FAUNAD ZEYLANICA, 8vyo, 10s. 6d.
KNOX. GREAT ARTISTS AND GREAT ANATOMISTS. Post 8vo, 6s. 6d.

——. ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES IN SUSSEX. Post 8vo, Third
Edition, 7s. 6d.

LATHAM. DESCRIPTIVE ETHNOLOGY. 2 vols. 8vo, £1 12s.
—-——. ETHNOLOGY OF BRITISH COLONIES. Foolscap 8vo, 5s.
———. ETHNOLOGY OF BRITISH ISLANDS. -Foolscap 8vo, 5s.
————. ETHNOLOGY OF EUROPE. Foolscap 8vo, 5s,
. ETHNOLOGY OF INDIA. 8yo, 16s.
——_——. MAN AND HIS MIGRATIONS. Foolscap 8vo, 5s.
VARISTIES OF MAN. 8yvo, 21s.

LEACH. SYNOPSIS OF THE MOLLUSCA OF GREAT BRITAIN.
Post 8vo, 14s. ;

6 VAN VOORST’S ALPHABETICAL LIST OF BOOKS.

LETTERS FROM THE VIRGIN ISLANDS. Post 8yo, 9s. 6d.
LETTERS OF RUSTICUS ON NATURAL HISTORY. 8vo, 8s. 6d.

LOWE. FISHES OF MADEIRA. Parts 1-5, Royal 8yo, Coloured, 5s. ;
Demy 4to, Coloured, 7s. 6d. each.

——. MANUAL FLORA OF MADEIRA. Foolscap 8vo, sewed, Parts
1-4, 3s. 6d. each.

. TWO MEMOIRS ON FERNS, LAND-SHELLS, ETC. OF MA-
deira, 12mo, 6s. 6d.

LYNN. PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. Foolscap 8vo, 3s.

MALAN. SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS.
8yvo, 8s. 6d.

MARTIN. CATALOGUE OF PRIVATELY PRINTED BOOKS. 8yvo, 21s.
MEYRICK. HOUSE-DOGS AND SPORTING-DOGS. Feap 8vo, 3s. 6d.

MOHL. ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE VEGETABLE CELL.
8yo, 7s. 6d.

MOORE anp MORE. CYBELE HIBERNICA. Post 8vo, 10s. 6d.
MOSLEY. NATURAL HISTORY OF TUTBURY. Royal.8vo, 21s.
MOULE. HERALDRY OF FISH. 8vo, 21s.; Royal 8vo, for Colouring, £2 2s.
NEWMAN. DICTIONARY OF BRITISH BIRDS. 8vo, 12s.

—————. HISTORY OF BRITISH FERNS. Third Edition, 8vo, 18s. ;
School Edition, foolscap 8yvo, 5s.

——_————. HISTORY OF INSECTS. 8yvo, 12s.

—. THE INSECT-HUNTERS AND oe POEMS. Fools-
cap 8yvo, 2s. 6d.

NEWTON. OOTHECA WOLLEYANA. Part 1, royal 8vo, £1 Ils. 6d.

NORTHCOTE ann CHURCH. QUALITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS.
Post 8vo, 10s. 6d.

OWEN. BRITISH FOSSIL MAMMALS AND BIRDS. 8yvo, £1 11s. 6d.
-. ON PARTHENOGENKESIS. 8yvo, 5s.

——-. ON THE MYLODON. Royal 4to, £1 12s. 6d.

PALEY. MANUAL OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. Fcap 8vo, 6s. 6d.
——. MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOLDINGS. Third Ed., 8vo, 7s. 6d.
——. THE CHURCH RESTORERS. Foolscap 8yo, 4s. 6d.
PENNELL. THE ANGLER-NATURALIST. Post 8yvo, 10s. 6d.
PLAYFAIR anp GUNTHER. FISHES OF ZANZIBAR. Royal 4to, £3 3s.
POOR ARTIST, OR SEVEN EYESIGHTS AND ONE OBJECT. Fools-

cap 8vo, 5s,

VAN VOORST’S ALPHABETICAL LIST OF BOOKS. 7

PRESCOTT. TOBACCO AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. 8vyo, 12s. 6d.
PRESTON. FLORA OF MARLBOROUGH. 12mo, 3s. 6d.

PRESTWICH. GEOLOGICAL INQUIRY RESPECTING THE WATER-
bearing Strata of the Country around London. 8yo, 8s. 6d.

. THE GROUND BENEATH US. §8vo, sewed, 3s. 6d.

RECORD OF ZOOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 8vo, 30s. annually (1864-66
published).

REFUGIUM BOTANICUM; FIGURES AND DESCRIPTIONS OF
Little-known or New Plants. Royal 8vo, Part 1, 7s. 6d.

SALISBURY. GENERA PLANTARUM. A FRAGMENT, CONTAINING
part of Liriogame. 8vo, 5s.

SAMUELSON. HUMBLE CREATURES. THE EARTHWORM AND
Housefly. Second Edition, post 8vo, 3s. 6d.

——. HUMBLE CREATURES. THE HONEY-BEE. Post
8yo, 6s.

SEEMANN. BRITISH FERNS AT ONE VIEW. 8vo, Coloured, 6s.
SELBY. BRITISH FOREST-TREES. §8yvo, 28s.

SHAKSPEARE’S SEVEN AGES OF MAN. Illustrated, square 8vo, 6s.
SHARPE. DECORATED WINDOWS. 8yvo, Plates, 21s.; Text, 10s. 6d.
SHIELD. HINTS RESPECTING MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 12mo,

sewed, 3s.
SIEBOLD. PARTHENOGENESIS IN MOTHS AND BEES. 8yvyo, 5s.
SMITH. BRITISH DIATOMACE. 2 vols. royal 8vo, £2 11s.

SOWERBY ann JOHNSON. BRITISH POISONOUS PLANTS. Post 8vo,
9s. 6d. *

———_—_—_——————. BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. Coloured, 8vo,

SOWERBY. KEY TO THE NATURAL ORDERS OF BRITISH WILD
Flowers. 8vo, 7s. 6d.

THESAURUS CONCHYLIORUM. Parts 1-25, Coloured,
£1 5s. each.

SPRATT anp FORBES. TRAVELS IN LYCIA. 2 vols. 8vo, £1 16s.
SPRATT. TRAVELS AND RESEARCHES IN CRETE. 2 vols. 8vo, £2.

STAINTON. MANUAL OF BRITISH BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS.
2 vols. 12mo, 10s.

. NATURAL HISTORY OF THE TINEINA. First Series,
10 vols. 8vo, 12s. 6d. each.

. TINEINA OF SYRIA AND ASIA MINOR. 8yo, 4s.

ora AnD MELVILLE. THE DODO AND ITS KINDRED.
0, &

8 VAN VOORST’S ALPHABETICAL LIST OF BOOKS.

STRICKLAND. ORNITHOLOGICAL SYNONYMS. Vol. i. (Aceipitres) _
8vo, 12s. 6d.

SUNDAY BOOK FOR ‘THE YOUNG. 16mo, 2s. 6d.

THOUGHTS BY A PHYSICIAN: BEING A —— SERIES OF
Evening Thoughts. Post 8vo.

TUGWELL. MANUAL OF SEA-ANEMONES. Post 8yo, 7s. 6d.

TULK axnp HENFREY. ANATOMICAL MANIPULATION. Feap 8vo, 9s.
WARD. HEALTHY RESPIRATION. Second Edition, foolscap, sewed, 1s.
WATTS. DIVINE AND MORAL SONGS. Illustrated, square 8vo, 7s. 6d.

WHITE. NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. Edited by JEnrns.
Foolseap 8vo, 7s. 6d.

WILKINSON. BRITISH TORTRICES. 8vo, 25s,
WILKINSON, LADY. WEEDS AND WILD FLOWERS. Post 8vo, 10s. 6d.

WILLIAMS. HANDBOOK OF CHEMICAL MANIPULATION. Post
8yo, 15s.

WOLLASTON. COLEOPTERA ATLANTIDUM. 8vo, 21s.
COLEOPTERA HESPERIDUM. §8vo, 10s. 6d.
______, INSECTA MADERENSIA. Royal 4to, £2 2s.
_——s?>ON THE VARIATION OF SPECIES. Post 8vo, 5s.
WOODWARD. ON POLARIZED LIGHT. Second Edition, 8vo, 3s.

YARRELL. HISTORY OF BRITISH BIRDS. 3 vols. 8vo, Third Edition,
£4 14s. 6d.
HISTORY OF BRITISH FISHES. 2 vols. 8vo, Third Edition,
£3 3s.
ON THE SALMON. Oblong folio, sewed, 12s.
ZOOLOGIST. A JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 1s. monthly.

PREP PI

In the press.

THE MOCKING-BIRD AND OTHER POEMS, by Freprrick Fizz, F.R.S.

ELEMENTS OF HEAT, by Frepericx Gururie, Professor of Chemistry and
Physics at the Roy al College, Mauritius.

A HISTORY OF BRITISH HYDROID ZOOPHYTES, by the Rey. Tuomas
Hinecxs, B.A. 2 vols. 8vo.

ON THE ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY OF ELY CATHEDRAL, by the
Rey. D. J. Srewart, M.A.

JOHN VAN VOORST, 1 PATERNOSTER ROW.

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