網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

white, and is covered with minute scales. It is distinguished from the Lizard tribe only by having a broad lateral membrane, supported by ribs, which it can contract or expand at pleasure. It wanders among trees, feeding upon insects; and its membrane enables it to spring from bough to bough, and support itself for a few moments in the air.

The Lizard Tribe, of which there are no fewer than eighty-one families, are active and nimble, and, except those that are aquatic, feed on insects.

The Crocodile is an inhabitant of the large rivers in: the warmer parts of Asia, Africa, and America. That of the Nile is the largest and most formidable of the tribe -commonly measuring between eighteen and twenty-five feet in length, and upwards of five in circumference. Its fore-legs, which are rather shorter than the hind ones, have the same parts and conformation as the arms of a man. Its head is very long; and, both jaws being move able, it can open its mouth wider than any other animal. It is of amazing strength, swiftness, and voracity,-devouring whatever animals come within its reach. Lying in wait among the reeds on the margin of the river, it seizes its prey with a sudden spring, and drags it into the water to despatch it at leisure. Even the tiger often falls a prey to it. Its body is covered with a kind of armour which renders it impenetrable even to the shot of a musket, except on the belly. Its roar is hideous. It generally moves in a straight line, and its great length obliges it to turn slowly and with difficulty, and hence there is an easy mode of eluding its grasp. The female deposits her eggs, which are scarcely larger than those of the goose, in the sand, where they are hatched by the heat of the sun. The young, on bursting the shell, move towards the water, and on their way thither great numbers are destroyed both by beasts and birds of prey.

The Guana inhabits India and the warmer parts of America, and its adjacent islands. It is from three to five feet long, and as thick as a man's leg; the male is generally of a green, and the female of an ash colour. It lives in rocky and woody places, feeding on insects and vegetables. It is perfectly harmless, easily tamed, and follows mankind like a dog. It is caught by throwing a noose:

over its head, and the flesh is so delicious that the sportsmen of those countries hunt it with as much eagerness as Europeans do the hare or blackcock. When provoked, it inflates the gular pouch to an immense size.

The Salamander, a native of Germany and many parts of Europe, is somewhat less than a foot in length, commonly black, spotted with yellow. It exudes from its pores a milky liquor, by which it is for a very short period defended against the action of fire, which has caused the vulgar belief that is capable of existing in that element a power which it possesses in no greater degree than frogs, snails, and many animals of the lizard tribe.

The Chameleon has a crooked cylindrical tail; and, including this appendage, measures rather more than a foot in length. It has enormous lungs, which it can inflate at pleasure, and hence its thickness varies at different seasons. It inhabits India and New Spain, living principally among the branches of trees, and feeding on flies, which it seizes by suddenly darting out its long worm-like tongue. The pupil of its eye is very bright, and that organ is so admirably constructed that the creature can see before, behind, and on either side of it, at the same instant; and all this by the aid of one eye, whilst the other is shut, or perfectly inactive. Its skin, though rough, is quite soft, and when it is "at rest, the eminences on its surface appear of a bluish grey, and the spaces between them of a pale red and yellow; but viewed in different lights it assumes every tint of colouring, and no two individuals can agree as to the exact shades it presents to the eye. Hence, it has been in all ages alluded to as the emblem of a fickle unsettled mind, which varies with every turn of opinion, and is constant in nothing but perpetual change."

The Siren has two feet placed in the manner of arms, and furnished with claws. It is about two feet long; lives commonly in water, but sometimes on land. It feeds on serpents, which it holds firmly between its jaws. It inhabits the swamps of South Carolina, and seems to be the link which unites the amphibious and fish tribes, being furnished with gills like the latter, and feet like the former. It has a kind of squeaking or singing voice, from which it has obtained its name. When thrown on

the ground it breaks in pieces like several of the serpent tribes.

XIV.-Serpents.

ALL animals of this kind have dilatable jaws, and a lax gullet, so that they can swallow, without mastication, an animal twice or thrice as thick as their own neck. Their body is tapering, and their motion either a sudden bound or an irregular undulatory writhing. They cast their skin from time to time, and this they do so thoroughly that even the outer coat of the eye is often found in the slough. They are generally of a forbidding or frightful aspect, inhabit damp unwholesome places, and live on animal food. Some of the larger tribes attack and devour strong quadrupeds, such as the ox, and even man himself; but the smaller tribes feed on small quadrupeds, birds, lizards, and even their own species. They are capable, however, of abstaining from food for a very long timesome of them for four, or six months, and upwards. Serpents are divided into seven genera, and no fewer than two hundred and twenty-nine species, but only five of this number are natives of Britain.

The Rattle-Snake, which is a native of America, is one of the most dangerous of its kind, its bite generally proving fatal in a few hours. The poison, which is contained in small sacks situated at the base of the canine teeth, enters the wound along with the teeth, and causes instantaneous and most excruciating pain. The animal is about the thickness of a man's leg, and nearly five feet long; and it is fortunate for the inhabitants of the districts in which it resides, that it will seldom, unless provoked, attack any animal except its natural prey. Providence, too, has kindly so constructed it that it cannot move without sounding an alarm to all in its vicinity: for in its tail is inserted an instrument, which makes a loud rattling noise whenever it stirs. This rattle is composed of a number of thin, hard, horny, hollow bones, linked together somewhat like the curb-chain of a bridle, which rattle upon the slightest movement. From the circumstance of those under two years of age having no rattle, whilst that in

the old ones has been found to contain a very different number of joints, it has been conjectured that the animal acquires an additional bone every year till the number amounts to forty. The power of fascinating its prey, ascribed to this creature by some naturalists, does not seem to be sufficiently established, and neither are they agreed as to the nature of its progressive motion. Rattle-Snakes, although oviparous, bring forth their young alive the mother hatching her eggs internally. They secure themselves against the severity of winter, by burying themselves in the earth, or creeping into holes or caverns under ground.

The Boa Tribe contains ten species, not one of which is poisonous. The Constrictor is the largest of all Serpents, frequently measuring thirty or forty feet in length. He is of a dusky white colour, beautifully variegated with rhombic spots, and inhabits the torrid regions both in the old and the new world. He lodges in caves and thick forests; and in the latter situation often twines himself round the trunk of a tree till his prey comes within reach. He then twists himself firmly round it, and squeezes it to death. So vast is his strength that he breaks and bruises the bones of Deer, Buffaloes, Tigers, and other quadru peds, which he encircles; and after having deprived them of life, he licks them all over, covering them with a slimy substance which makes them more easily swallowed. He then begins at the lower extremities, and sucks the carcass slowly into his body. He has been observed for a considerable time with the horns of a stag sticking out of his mouth, these being two large to swallow, and too hard to digest. After swallowing a large animal, the Constrictor usually betakes himself to the nearest sequestered spot, that he may digest his meal undisturbed. But after indulging to excess he becomes, like the surfeited glutton, heavy, stupid, and sleepy; and then he, in hist turn, falls an easy prey to his enemies.

The Coluber or Viper Tribe contains one hundred and thirty-six species that are innoxious, and thirty-six that have hollow fangs. Two of the noxious and one of the harmless kind inhabit Great Britain. The British Viper abounds most in the Hebrides, and measures about two feet in length. The ground colour is a dingy yellow;

and the back, from head to tail, is marked with a row of rhomboidal black spots, joined to each other at the angu lar points; the sides are covered with triangular spots; and the belly is quite black. Its motion is slow. Although oviparous, the mother hatches the eggs in her own body, and excludes the young alive. The eggs are about the size of a blackbird's, and are linked together like a string of beads. The reptile seldom carries more than eleven eggs at a time, and each egg contains from one to four young; so that an entire brood averages from twenty to thirty. The creature is capable of existing an immense length of time without food. One was confined in a box for six months, during which time it received no nourishment, and yet lost none of its vivacity. Indeed, in a state of confinement they neither eat food nor indulge in sleep; and in a state of nature they feed only during a small portion of the year, and become torpid during the winter. Their bite produces sudden swelling and inflammation; but a little olive oil instantly applied to the part, and a sufficient quantity taken internally to prove emetic, generally effects a perfect cure in a few hours.

The Spectacle Snake takes its name from a black and white mark on its head, somewhat resembling a pair of spectacles. Its small head is covered with large scales, and its body with smooth ones. It is an inhabitant of India, the most venomous of its tribe, and scarcely inferior to the rattle-snake in the malignity of its poison. It is often caught by the natives, and, after having had its fangs extracted, is taught to throw itself into a variety of fantastic attitudes to the sound of music, and, when sufficiently expert, is exhibited as a show.

The Snake Tribe consists of two British, and twentyfour foreign species. The British Snake sometimes exceeds four feet in length, and is perfectly harmless. Its neck is slender, and its body gradually swells towards the middle. Along the entire ridge of its back are two rows of black spots, from which proceed numerous spots in straight lines across the body. The back and sides are covered with small scales, and the belly with oblong transverse plates, those on the belly being dusky, and those on the sides of a bluish white. There is a spot of pale yel

« 上一頁繼續 »