into his triumph over Cleopatra, as well as several others, for the entertainment of the people.

A vulgar error seems to have long prevailed relative to this animal's moving his upper jaw. This error seems to have been first rectified by Grew, in his description of the skeleton of a crocodile in the Museum of the Royal Society. His words are these: "The articulations of the lower jaw with the upper, and of the occiput with the foremost vertebræ of the neck, are here made both in the same manner, as in other quadrupeds, notwithstanding the tradition of his moving the upper jaw: the senselessness of this tradition is plain from the structure of the bones, that is, the articulation only of the occiput with the neck, and of the nether jaw with the upper, as abovesaid."

SECTION, MI.

Alligator.

Lacerta alligator.-LINN.

[Grew. Shaw.

So very great is the general resemblance between this animal and the crocodile, that many naturalists have been strongly inclined to consider it as a mere variety, rather than a distinct species. Among others, the Count de Cepede is of this opinion, and declares, that on examining several specimens of American crocodiles, and collating them with those of the Nile, he could not but consider them as absolutely of the same species; and that the slight differences observable between them may be well supposed to be owing merely to the effect of climate. Both animals, he observes, agree in the number of teeth; and the general manners and habits of both are found to be similar in the old and new continent. The more accurate discrimination, however, of Blumenbach, and some others, seems in reality to prove that the alligator, or American crocodile, is specifically distinct from the Nilotic, though the difference is not such as immediately to strike a general observer. The leading difference, if it be allowed to constitute a distinction of species, seems to be, that the head of the alligator is rather smooth on the upper part, than marked with those very strong rugosities and hard caripated scales which appear on that of the crocodile; and that the snout is considerably flatter and wider, as well as more rounded at the ex

tremity. The alligator arrives at a size not much inferior to that of the crocodile, specimens having been often seen of eighteen or twenty feet in length.

"Though the largest and greatest numbers of alligators," says Catesby," inhabit the torrid zone, the continent abounds with them ten degrees more north, particularly as far as the river Neus, in North Carolina, in the latitude of about 33, beyond which I have never heard of any, which latitude nearly answers to the northernmost parts of Africa, where they are likewise found. They frequent not only salt rivers near the sea, but streams of fresh water in the upper parts of the country, and in lakes of salt and fresh water, on the banks of which they lie lurking among reeds, to surprise cattle and other animals. In Jamaica, and many parts of the continent, they are found about twenty feet in length: they cannot be more terrible in their aspect, than they are formidable and mischievous in their natures, sparing neither man nor beast they can surprise, pulling them down under water, that being dead, they may with greater facility, and without struggle or resistance, devour them. As quadrupeds do not so often come in their way, they almost subsist on fish; but as Providence, for the preservation, or to prevent the extinction of defenceless creatures, hath in many instances restrained the devouring appetites of voracious animals, by some impediment or other, so this destructive monster, by the close connexion of his vertebræ, can neither swim nor run any way than strait forward, and is consequently disabled from turning with that agility requisite to catch his prey by pursuit: therefore they do it by surprise in the water as well as by land; for effecting which, nature seems in some measure to have recompensed their want of agility, by giving them a power of deceiving and catching their prey by a sagacity peculiar to them, as well as by the outer form and colour of their body, which on land resembles an old dirty log or tree, and in the water frequently lies floating on the surface, and there has the like appearance, by which, and his silent artifice, fish, fowl, turtle, and other animals are deceived, suddenly catched and devoured.

"Carnivorous animals get their food with more difficulty and less certainty than others, and are often necessitated to fast a long time, which a slow concoction enables them to endure: reptiles particularly, by swallowing what they eat whole, digest slowly, eat

seldom, and live long without food. Wolves are said to gorge themselves with mud, to supply the want of better food. For the like cause many alligators swallow stones and other substances, to distend and prevent the contraction of their intestines when empty, and not to help digestion, which they seem in no need of. For in the greater number of many I have opened, nothing has appeared but clumps of light wood and pieces of pine tree coal, some of which weighed eight pounds, and were reduced and wore so smooth from their first angular roughness, that they seemed to have remained in them many months. They lay a great number of eggs at one time, in the sandy banks of rivers and lakes, which are hatched by the heat of the sun, without further care of the parents. The young, as soon as they are disengaged from their shells, betake themselves to the water, and shift for themselves; but while young, they serve as a prey not only to ravenous fish, but to their own species. It is to be admired that so vast an animal should at first be contained in an egg no bigger than that of a turkey."

"In South Carolina they are very numerous, but the northern situation of that country occasions their being of a smaller size than those nearer the line, and they rarely attack men or cattle, yet are great devourers of hogs. In Carolina they lie torpid from about October to March, in caverns and hollows in the banks of rivers, and at their coming out in the spring, make an hideous bellowing noise. The hind part of their belly and tail are eat by the Indians. The flesh is delicately white, but has so perfumed a taste and smell that I never could relish it with pleasure."

[Shaw. Catesby.

SECTION IV.

Chameleon.

Lacerta chamæleon.-LINN.

FEW animals have been more celebrated by natural historians than the chameleon, which has been sometimes said to possess the power of changing its colour at pleasure, and of assimilating it to that of any particular object or situation. This, however, must be received with very great limitations; the change of colour which the animal exhibits varying in degree, according to circumstances

of health, temperature of the weather, and many other causes, and consisting chiefly in a sort of alteration of shades from the natural greenish or blueish grey of the skin into pale yellowish, with irregular spots or patches of dull red; but not justifying the application of the Ovidian distich,

- "Non mihi tot cultus numero comprendere fas est: Adjicit ornatus proxima quæque dies."

No numbers can the varying robe express,

While each new day presents a different dress.

It is also to be observed, that the natural or usual colour of chameleons varies very considerably; some being much darker than others, and it has even been seen approaching to a blackish tinge. An occasional change of colour is likewise observable, though in a less striking degree, in some other lizards.

The general length of the chameleon, from the tip of the nose to the beginning of the tail, is about ten inches, and the tail is of nearly similar length, but the animal is found of various sizes, and sometimes exceeds the length above-mentioned. It is a creature of a harmless nature, and supports itself by feeding on insects; for which purpose the structure of the tongue is finely adapted, consisting of a long, missile body, furnished with a dilated and somewhat tubular tip, by means of which the animal seizes insects with great ease, darting out its tongue in the manner of a woodpecker, and retracting it instantaneously with the prey secured in its tip. It can also support a long abstinence, and bence arose the popular idea of the chameleon being nourished by air alone. It is found in many parts of the world, and particularly in India and Africa. It is also sometimes seen in the warmer parts of Spain and Portugal.

The chameleon, by the power which it possesses in common with most other amphibia, of inflating its lungs and retaining the air for a great length of time, appears occasionally of a plump or fleshy aspect, while at other times, on evacuating the air from its lungs and keeping them in a collapsed state, it appears in the utmost degree of extenuation, as if consisting of little more than a mere skin, the ribs being completely visible on each side of the body. The skin on every part of the animal is of a granulated

structure, the granules differing in size on different parts, from that of a small pin's head to the diameter of the tenth of an inch, or even more, especially on the edges of the projecting parts of the head and jaws. Down the back runs a series of obscure denticulations or slight projections, forming a carina on that part. The feet consist each of five toes, three and two of which on each foot are connate, or united as far as the claws by a common skin: on the fore feet the two outward and three inward toes are united; and in the hind feet the two inward and three outward. The motions of the chameleon are extremely slow, and in sitting on a branch, or in passing from one to another, it fastens itself by coiling its tail round that from which it means to pass, till it has perfectly secured the other with its feet.

The general or usual changes of colour in the chameleon, so far as I have been able to ascertain from my own observation of sucb as have been brought into this country in a living state, are from a blueishash-colour (its natural tinge) to a green and sometimes yellowish colour, spotted unequally with red. If the animal be exposed to a full sunshine, the unilluminated side generally appears, within the space of some minutes, of a pale yellow, with large roundish patches or spots of red-brown. On reversing the situation of the animal the same change takes place in an opposite direction; the side which was before in the shade now becoming either brown or ash-colour, while the other side becomes yellow and red; but these changes are subject to much variety both as to intensity of colours and disposition of spots.

The following is the description given by the anatomists of the French Academy.

"The colour of all the eminences of our chameleon when it was at rest, in the shade, and had continued a long time undisturbed, was a blueish grey, except under the feet, where it was white inclining to yellow, and the intervals of the granules of the skin were of a pale and yellowish red. This grey, which coloured all the parts exposed to the light, changed when in the sun; and all the places of its body which were illuminated, instead of their blueish colour, became of a brownish grey, inclining to a minime. The rest of the skin, which was not illuminated by the sun, changed its grey into several brisk and shining colours, forming spots about half a finger's breadth, reaching from the erest of the