quered the horrors instilled into them by their nurses, as generally to request to see it fed. It appeared most partial to flesh-maggots, which were kept for it in bran. It would follow them on the table, and, when within a proper distance, would fix its eyes and remain motionless for a little while, apparently to prepare for the stroke which was to follow, and which was instantaneous. It threw out its tongue to a great distance, and the insect, stuck by the glutinous matter to its tip, was swallowed by a motion quicker than the eye could follow. After having been kept more than thirty-six years, it was at length destroyed by a tame raven, which one day seeing it at the mouth of its hole, pulled it out, and so wounded it that it died.

According to La Cepède, and other naturalists, it is also impossible to determine how far an amphibious animal may increase in bulk. The immense skins of a lizard and of a Toad have long been seen in one of the churches at St. Omer, in Picardy, and have astonished the beholders.

NATURE, in her provident wisdom, seems to have united, in an uninterrupted chain, the whole of the creation. The coral brings the animal kingdom near the vegetable; the bat calls on the quadrupeds and the birds with equal rights of affinity; and the Lizards

join the inhabitants of the liquid element with those of the land; whilst the flying-fish assimilates them to those of the air. Lizards may be divided into several species, and are nearly of all colours. The Green and Nimble Lizards are those chiefly known in Europe. They are amphibious, that is, they live equally happy on land or in water, although some particular species affect more the one than the other element. They are harmless, and have even received from popular, but we think unfounded, traditions, the honourable qualification of being friends to man.

The Green Lizard, and the Nimble Lizard, are considered by Dr. Shaw as varieties of the same species. The latter, however, sometimes attains a considerable size, measuring two feet or upwards in length, although its general size is not more than fifteen inches. Its colours are more brilliant and beautiful than those of any other European Lizard: they exhibit a rich and varied mixture of darker and lighter green, interspersed with specks and marks of yellow, brown, blackish, and sometimes even red. The head is covered with large angular scales; and the rest of the upper parts with very small ones. The tail is generally much longer than the body. Beneath the throat there is a kind of collar, formed by scales of much darker colour than the rest of the body.

This animal seems occasionally to lay aside its natural gentleness of disposition, but no further than for the purpose of obtaining food. Mr. Edwards once surprised a nimble Lizard in the act of fighting with a small bird, as she sat on her nest in a vine against a wall, with newly hatched young. He supposed that the Lizard would have made a prey of the latter, could he have driven the old bird from her nest. He watched the contest for some time; but, on his near approach, the Lizard dropped to the ground, and the bird flew off.

THE Chameleon is a small animal of the lizard genus, about ten inches long, and its tail nearly the same length. Its body is shagreened with small scaly granules, compressed; and the back edged; the tail round, long, and tapering. Its feet have each five toes, which are situated three one way and two another, in order to enable it to lay firmly hold of the branches; but wherever it happens that these are too large for the animal to grasp with its feet, it coils round them its long, prehensile tail, and fixes its claws strongly into the bark. When walking on the ground, it steps forward in an extremely cautious manner, seeming never to lift one foot until it is well assured of the firmness of the rest. From these precautions, its motions have a ridiculous appearance of gravity, when contrasted with the smallness of its size,

and the activity that might be expected from an animal so nearly allied to some of the most active in the creation. Though the Chameleon is extremely ugly and disgusting in appearance, it is perfectly harmless. It feeds only on insects, for which the structure of its tongue is well adapted, being long and missile, and furnished with a dilated, glutinous, and somewhat tubular tip. By means of this it seizes on insects with the greatest ease, darting it out and immediately retracting it, with the prey thus secured, which it swallows whole. The notion that Chameleons were able to feed on air is incorrect; it seems to have arisen merely from the circumstance of these animals, like all others of their class, being able to subsist for a great length of time without food. The eyes of the Chameleon have a singular property of looking at the same instant in different directions; one of them may be seen to move when the other is at rest, or one will be directed forward, whilst the other is attending to some object behind; or in a similar manner upward and downward. It has the power of inflating its body to double its ordinary size, and at these times it is transparent. It can undoubtedly take the colour of any object it passes over; but in what way this is accomplished, naturalists are unable to explain. A Chameleon was exhibited in London a few years ago, and, to show this extraordinary property, several pieces of carpet, of various colours, were laid on the table; and, as the animal walked over each, it changed its colour to that of the ground: it was observed to make a halt for a second when it got upon a new colour, before it underwent the change. This animal is a native of India, the Indian islands, Asia, and Africa; and it is also found in the Mexican dominions.

ARE the largest of the lizard genus; and, though capable of living on land, as well as in the water, link themselves with fish by being oviparous; while the whale, that is confined to the regions of the deep, and cannot live out of them, bears resemblance to the quadrupeds by bringing forth her young alive. Both the Crocodile, whose haunts are the reedy banks of the Nile, the Niger in Africa, and the Ganges in Asia; and the Alligator, who is confined to the middle parts of America; appear to be of a gregarious propensity, as they are sometimes found lying as close together as a raft of timber. The body of both is rough, being covered with hard scales. The Crocodile is in length eighteen, twenty, and sometimes thirty feet, the tail being about five feet and a half. The feet are webbed; the hinder having four toes, the fore feet five, three of which have strong nails. The eye is very small in proportion to the whole bulk of the creature, and about one inch long in its wider diameter. The nose