Book excerpt: Excerpt from North American Herpetology, or a Description of the Reptiles Inhabiting the United States, 1842, Vol. 1 Reptiles form the third great class of vertebrated animals. They are beings provided with lungs, a simple heart, low temperature, slow digestion, and oviparous generation; having neither hair, feathers, nor mammae. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.