Identifier: zoologicallectur21809shaw (find matches)
Title: Zoological lectures delivered at the Royal Institution in the years 1806 and 1807
Year: 1809 (1800s)
Authors: Shaw, George, 1751-1813 Mearns, Edgar Alexander, 1856-1916, former owner. DSI Royal Institution of Great Britain
Subjects: Zoology
Publisher: London : Printed for George Kearsley, by Thomas Davison
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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but on the undei*parts of the body it is much weaker or thinner.The Crocodile is produced from an egg sca,rcelylarger than that of a goose, and covered with d,strong calcarious shell, like that of a bird. Ofthese eggs the female deposits a numerous broodin the sand, and the young, when hatched, imme-diately betake themselves to the water. The Indian or Gangetic Crocodile is of atleast equal size with the Nilotic, and is distin-guished by its very long and narrow snout, andby having teeth almost double the number of thoseof the Nilotic species. The Alligator or American Crocodile is morenearly allied to the Nilotic, but is supposed to b6distinguished by two rising lines or crests alongthe upper part of the tail. The Ceylonese Crocodile much resemblesthese, but has every scale on the upper parts fur-nished with a flat crest or elevation. Besides^hese species, two or three others may be prettydistinctly traced in the works of naturalists,though their precise specific characters cannot bd
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LECTURE VIL 29 accurately investigated. The common Crocodilehas been supposed by the ancients to move theupper jaw: this the most accurate of the modernobservers have given up as a mistaken doctrine;but a naturalist of tine French school. MonsieurGeoffroy, has lately revived the ancient doctrine,and contends that this circumstance really takesplace in the Nilotic Crocodile, As farther examples of the Lizard tribe I shallonly mention the Chamseleons and the Salamandersor Water-Newts. The common Chamasleon, anative of many of the warmer parts of the world,and particularly of Africa, has long been cele-brated for its supposed power of changing its co-lour at pleasure according to the object on whichit is placed. This is a vulgar error; but it is truethat the animal does every now and then changeits colour in a surprising manner, from some par-ticular causes not well understood. The generalcolour of the animal is a greyish or blueish green jand this often becomes, in the space of a few mo

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