crosses the paddy fields from one creek to another, often a quarter of a mile asunder. The Chinese told him that this was done by means of a kind of leg.

3

I shall close this history of Fishes with some account of the tribe to which the fishing-frog1 belongs. I have before alluded to their connection with the Reptiles; in some points also they look to the rays and the sharks. The attenuated tail of all, and the enormous swallow of others,* give them this resemblance, especially to the first, so that the French call them fishing-rays.5 The best known of them is that called, by way of eminence, the fishing-frog. This is a large fish, sometimes seven feet long; it is found in all the European seas, and is often called the seadevil. "This fish," says Lacepede, "having neither defensive arms in its integuments, nor force in its limbs, nor celerity in swimming, is, in spite of its bulk, constrained to have recourse to stratagem to procure its subsistence, and to confine its chase to ambuscades, for which its conformation in other respects adapts it. It plunges itself in the mud, covers itself with seaweed, conceals itself amongst the stones, and lets no part of it be perceived but the extremity of

1 Lophius Piscator.

3 PLATE XIII. FIG. 1, 3. 5 Raie pécheresse.

2 See above, p. 389.

4 Ibid. FIG. 3.

the filaments that fringe its body, which it agitates in different directions, so as to make them appear like worms or other baits. The fishes, attracted by this apparent prey, approach, and are absorbed by a single movement of the fishing-frog, and swallowed by his enormous throat, where they are retained by the innumerable teeth with which it is armed. Another animal of this tribe is furnished only with a single bait, just above the mouth."1

We see by this singular contrivance that fertility of expedient by which the Beneficence, and Wisdom, and Power of the Creator have remedied the seeming defects which appear incident to almost every animal form. If it cannot pursue and overtake and seize its prey, it is enabled, as in the case of the electric fishes, the fly-shooter, and the fishing-frogs, in a way we should not expect, to ensure its subsistence; and while it is doing this, discharging, if I may so speak, its official duty, and acting that part, on its own theatre, by which it best contributes to the general welfare.

Doubtless the infinite forms of the Class we are considering, that inhabit the, so called, element of water, and of which probably we may still be unacquainted with a very large pro

1 Malthus Vespertilio, PLATE XIII. FIG. 1, 2, a.

portion, all bear the same relation to each other, and are organized with a view to a similar action upon each other, that we see takes place upon the earth. There are predaceous fishes to keep the aquatic population of every description within due limits; there are others whose office it is to remove nuisances arising from putrescent substances, whether animal or vegetable; and lastly, there are others which, like our herds and flocks, are peaceful and gregarious, and graze the herbage of sea-weeds that cover the ocean's bed. All these, in their several stations, and by their several operations, glorify their Almighty Author by fulfilling his will.

409

CHAPTER XXII.

Functions and Instincts. Reptiles.

In the whole sphere of animals, there are none, that, from the earliest ages, have been more abhorred and abominated, and more repudiated as unclean and hateful creatures, than the majority of the Class we are next to enter upon,-that of Reptiles. One Order of them, indeed, consisting of the turtles and tortoises, and some individuals belonging to another, are exempted from this sentence, and are regarded with more favourable eyes; but the rest either disgust us by their aspect, or terrify us by their supposed or real power of injury.

2

In Scripture, the serpent; the larger Saurians, under the names of the dragon and leviathan ; and frogs are employed as symbols of the evil spirit, of tyrants and persecutors, and of the false prophets that incite them.3

1 The Chelonians.

3

2 The Gecko, Monitor, Chameleon, &c. amongst the Sau

rians.

3 Job, xli. 34; Psl. xxvii. 1; Ezek. xxv. 3; Rev. xx. 2, xvi. 13.

Yet these animals exhibit several extraordinary characters and qualities. They are endued with a degree of vivaciousness that no others possess: they can endure dismemberments and privations which would expel the vital principle from any creature in existence except themselves. Their life is not so concentrated in the brain, which with them is extremely minute, but seems more expanded over the whole of their nervous system: take out their brain or their heart, and cut off their head, yet they can still move, and the heart will even beat many hours after extraction; it is also stated that they can live without food for months, and even years.1

But though gifted by their Creator with such a tenacity of life, yet is that life often raised a very few degrees above death. Many of them select for their retreats damp and gloomy caverns and vaults, shut out from the access of the light and air. In allusion to this circumstance, Babylon, the imperial city, she, who in ancient times subjected the eastern world to her domination, was forewarned that she should become heaps, and a dwelling-place for dragons.

Whether the many instances that have been recorded in different countries, of toads found

1 Cuv. Règn. An. ii. 1. 8. Lacep. Quad. Ovipar. i. 20. 2 Jerem. li. 37.