present, to the wall cases, reserving the examination of all table
cases for his return visit, on his way out. And here the visitor may
well pause to think upon the zoological travels he has already made,
from the mammalia, which present the highest types of animal life;
through the sub-families of birds, which form Cuvier's secondary class
of vertebrata, or animals with a back-bone; to the threshold of the
room in which the tertiary class of back-boned animals are deposited.
This class includes the great families of

REPTILES,

of which there are no less than six hundred and fifty-seven varieties.
Reptiles are vertebrated animals belonging to Cuvier's first great
section, but distinguished from mammalia and birds, by their cold
blood, their oviparous generation, and the absence of either feathers
or hair from their bodies. They take precedence of fish in the animal
kingdom, having lungs for aerial respiration, and "a higher
circulatory organisation than the exclusive inhabitants of the water."
In the museum, Cuvier's classification has been followed, with slight
variations; that is to say, the reptiles have been re-divided into
four classes:--the Sauria, or Lizards (in which class some modern
naturalists, as Merrem and others, include serpents); the Ophidia, or
Serpents; the Testudinata, or Tortoises; and the Batrachia, or Frogs.
The lizards occupy the first ten wall cases in this room.

The first case contains those lizards of India and Africa which have
long held the regard of eastern nations, upon the slender report that
they hiss upon the approach of a crocodile, and so warn the incautious
traveller to retreat in time. The truth is, these sauria prey upon the
crocodile's eggs, no doubt to the particular annoyance of the