File:Zoological lectures delivered at the Royal Institution in the years 1806 and 1807 (1809) (14591882288).jpg

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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eye can only be seen externally: the animalcan direct one eye upwards and the other down-wards at pleasure, so great is its command overthese organs. The tongue is extremely long, ex-tensile at pleasure^ like that of a Woodpecker,and furnished at the end with a broad glutinoustip. With this it catches insects, darting the tongueupon them, and suddenly retracting it, like thequadrupeds of the genera of Manis and Myrme-cophaga. The Chamasleon can support a very longabstinence, and will even bear to be confinedmany weeks together without any visible food,and hence the old notion of its living on air. Thebest figure of the Chamasleon is that given inMr. Millers miscellaneous plates of NaturalHistory. There are two or three other species of Charmaeleon which have only been fully described oflate years. I proceed to the last division of the Lizards,.containing the Salamanders, or Water-Newts. Intheir whole economy these Lizards are stronglyallied to Frogs, inhabiting the water, and pro- S4
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LECTURE VII. 31 ceeding from soft gelatinous eggs or spawn. Theyoung, when first hatched, are furnished on eachside the breast with a pair of ramified breathing-organs, which are obliterated when the animal isfull-grown. The common Salamander, so famousfor the old vulgar error which relates to its sup-posed power of living in the fire, is a beautifulanimal of about eight or nine inches in length,and of a black colour, with large, irregular, deep-yellow spots and patches. It is a native of many )parts of Germany in particular, and occasionallyappears either on land or in water: on the upperpart of the body it is furnished with a great manylarge pores, fi-om which, on any irritation a whit-ish watery fluid exsudes, and this has given riseto the popular superstition of Its being able toquench any fire into which it can be thrown. The larger English-Newt or L. palustris ofLinnaeus much resembles it, but is smaller, and ofa brown colour, with minute white specks, ancivaried with black and

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