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A Manual of Natural History, for the Use of Travellers
A Manual of Natural History for the Use of Travellers Author:Arthur Adams Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: vated, sometimes very small; claws curved, sometimes very acute; wings long and pointed. The Skimmers (xlhynchopince) have lower mandible much longer than upper,... more » and both suddenly compressed from base, and truncate. 6. Family. — Pelicans (Pelecanidss). Bill long, strong, pointed or hooked, lateral margins sometimes serrated ; nostrils basal; tarsi short; all the four toes connected by a membrane; throat sometimes furnished with a dilatable pouch; wings long and pointed. REPTILES. The Reptiles, though not a very extensive group, present numerous points of great interest to the observant naturalist. Among them is to be found extreme diversity of external configuration, more so, perhaps, than in any other class of vertebrate animals. They include, among their varied forms, the gliding,hissing Serpent; the lively,active Lizard; the gigantic Crocodile ; and the huge, unwieldy Turtle. Yet all these, though differing so much from each other in outward appearance, nevertheless possess a sufficient number of characters in common as to enable them to be united into one class. They are all cold-blooded creatures, and their movements are more sluggish than in either of the preceding classes;the size of the brain and the amount of nervous matter is proportionally small, and their motions appear to proceed less from a common centre. They abound more in the "warmer regions of the globe, where they remain lively all the year through, while in colder climes they become torpid during the winter months. The typical family of Reptiles is that of Lizards, in which the essential characteristics are well marked, and the individuals belonging to which attain to a more advanced state of development, generally speaking, than any others of the group. Many possess an amount of beauty capable of arre...« less