and that its serpent-like figure has involved it in one common reproach with serpents.

The salamander best known in Europe is from eight to eleven inches long, usually black, spotted with yellow; and when taken in the hand feeling cold to a great degree. There are several kinds. Our Black Water Newt is reckoned among the number. The idle report of its being inconsumable in fire, has caused many of these poor animals to be burnt; but we cannot say as philosophical martyrs; since scarcely any philosopher could think it necessary to make the experiment. When thrown into the fire, the animal is seen to burst with the heat of its situation, and to eject its fluids. We are gravely told in the Philosophical Transactions, that this is a method the animal takes to extinguish the flames..

When examined internally, the salamander exhibits little different from other animals of the lizard kind. It is furnished with lungs that sometimes serve for the offices of breathing; with a heart that has its communications open, so that the animal cannot easily be drowned. The ovary in the female is double the size of what it is in others of this tribe; and the male is furnished with four testiculi instead of two. But what deserves particular notice, is the manner of this animal's bringing forth its young alive.* "The salamander," says my author, “ be

gins to show itself in spring, and chiefly during "heavy rains. When the warm weather returns, "it disappears; and never leaves its hole, during

* Acta Hafniensia, ann. 1676. Observ. 11. Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, tom. iii. part. 3. p. 80.

"either great heats or severe colds, both which it equally fears. When taken in the hand, it

1

appears like a lump of ice; it consequently loves "the shade, and is found at the feet of old trees surrounded with brush-wood at the bottom. It "is fond of running along new plowed grounds, "probably to seek for worms, which are its ordi

nary food. One of these," continues my author, "I took alive some years ago in a ditch that had "been lately made. I laid it at the foot of the stairs

66

upon coming home, and there it disgorged from "the throat a worm three inches long, that lived "for an hour after, though wounded as I suppose by the teeth of the animal. I afterwards cut up another of these lizards, and saw not less than

fifty young ones, resembling the parent, come "from its womb, all alive, and actively running "about the room." It were to be wished the author had used another word beside that of worm: as we now are in doubt whether he means a real worm, or a young animal of the lizard species: had he been more explicit, and had it appeared that it was a real young lizard, which I take to be his meaning, we might here see a wonder of Nature, brought to the proof, which many have asserted, and many have thought proper to deny I mean the refuge which the young of the shark, the lizard, and the viper kinds, are said to take, by running down the throat of the parént, and there finding a temporary security. The fact, indeed, seems a little extraordinary; and yet it is so frequently attested by some, and even believed by others, whose authority is respectable, among the number of whom

:

we find Mr. Pennant, that the argument of strangeness must give way to the weight of authority.

However this be, there is no doubt of the animal's being viviparous, and producing above fifty at a time. They come from the parent in full perfection, and quickly leave her to shift for themselves. These animals, in the lower ranks of nature, want scarcely any help when excluded; they soon complete the little circle of their education; and in a day or two are capable of practising all the arts of subsistence and evasion practised by their kind.

They are all amphibious, or at least are found capable of subsisting in either element, when placed there: if those taken from land are put into water, they continue there in seeming health; and, on the contrary, those taken from the water will live upon land. In water, however, they exhibit a greater variety in their appearance; and what is equally wonderful with the rest of their history, during the whole spring and summer this water lizard changes its skin every fourth or fifth day; and during the winter every fifteen days. This operation they perform by means of the mouth and the claws; and it seems a work of no small difficulty and pain. The cast skins are frequently seen floating on the surface of the water: they are sometimes seen also with a part of their old skin still sticking to one of their limbs, which they have not been able to get rid of; and thus, like a man with a boot half drawn, in some measure crippled in their own spoils. This also often corrupts, and the leg drops off, but the animal does not seem to feel the want of it, for the loss of a limb to all the lizard kind is but a trifling

calamity. They can live several hours even after the loss of their head: and for some time under dissection, all the parts of this animal seem to retain life: but the tail is the part that longest retains its motion. Salt seems to be much more efficacious in destroying these animals, than the knife; for, upon being sprinkled with it, the whole body emits a viscous liquor, and the lizard dies in three minutes, in great agonies....

The whole of the lizard kind are also tenacious of life in another respect, and the salamander among the number. They sustain the want of food in a surprising manner. One of them, brought from the Indies, lived nine months, without any other food than what it received from licking a piece of earth on which it was brought over :* another was kept by Seba in an empty vial for six months, without any nourishment; and Redi talks of a large one, brought from Africa, that lived for eight months, without taking any nourishment whatever. Indeed, as many of this kind, both salamanders and lizards, are torpid, or nearly so, during the winter, the loss of their appetite for so long a time is the less surprising.

2

1

CHAP. VII..

Of the Cameleon, Iguana, and Lizards of different Kinds..

IT were to be wished that animals could be so classed, that by the very mentioning their rank, we

* Phil. Trans. ann. 1661, N. 21. art. 7.

1

should receive some insight into their history. This I have endeavoured in most instances; but in the present chapter all method is totally unserviceable. Here distribution gives no general ideas for some of the animals to be here mentioned produce by eggs; some by spawn; and some are viviparous. The peculiar manner of propagating in each, is very indistinctly known. The Iguana and the Cameleon, we know, bring forth eggs; some others also produce in the same manner: but of the rest, which naturalists make amount to above fifty, we have but very indistinct information.

In the former divisions of this tribe, we had to observe upon animals, formidable from their size, or disgusting from their frog-like head and appearance; in the present division, all the animals are either beautiful to the eye, or grateful to the appetite. The lizards, properly so called, are beautifully painted and mottled; their frolicksome agility is amusing to those who are familiar with their appearance; and the great affection which some of them show to man, should, in some measure, be repaid with kindness. Others, such as the Iguana, though not possessed of beauty, are very serviceable, furnishing one of the most luxurious feasts the tropical climates can boast of. Those treated of before were objects of curiosity, because they were apparently objects of danger: most of these here mentioned have either use or beauty to engage us.

Directly descending from the crocodile, we find the Cordyle, the Tockay, and the Tejuguacu, all growing less in order, as I have named them. These