86 REPTILIA. 



The terrestrial species of France have a gland analogous to 

 that of the Toad, on each side of the occiput. 



Salam. maculosa, Laur.j Lac. II, pi, xxx; Lacert. salamandra, 

 L. Black, with large spots of a bright yellowj ranges of tuber- 

 cles on the sides, from which, when agitated by fear, oozes a 

 milky, bitter liquid, that has a strong odour and is poisonous to 

 very weak animals. It is, perhaps, this circumstance which 

 has given rise to the fable of the incombustibility of the Sala- 

 mander. It lives in wet places and hides itself in holes, feeds 

 on lumbrici, insects and earth, brings forth its young living, 

 and deposits them in poolsj at first they have branchiae, and 

 their tail is vertically compressed. (l) 



A Salamander resembling the common one, but entirely black 

 and immaculate, is found in the Alps, it is the Sal. atra, Lau- 

 rent, pi. I, f. 2. 



Sal. perspicillata, Savi. Only four toes to all the feet; black 

 above; yellow, spotted with black beneath: a yellow line across 

 the eyes. A small species from the Apennines.(2) 

 North America, which produces many more Salamanders than 

 Europe, has several that are terrestrial, with a round tail, but defi- 

 cient in the glands on the occiput. (3) 



Triton, Laur. 



Aquatic Salamanders always retain the vertically compressed tail, 

 and pass nearly the whole of their existence in the water. The ex- 

 periments of Spallanzani on their astonishing power of reproduction, 

 have rendered them celebrated. If a limb be amputated, another is 

 reproduced in its stead with all its bones, muscles, vessels. Sec. and 

 this takes place several times in succession. Another not less sin- 

 gular faculty, discovered by Dufay, is the power they possess of 

 remaining enclosed in ice for a considerable time without perishing. 



Their eggs are fecundated by the seminal fluid diffused in the 

 water, which enter the oviduct together; they are expelled in long 



(1) See, Ad. Fred. Funck., <Ze Salam. terrest.vita, evolutione, formatione, Berlin, 

 fol. 1827. 



(2) We have ascertained that the Sal. d trots doigts, Lacep. II, pi. 36, is merely 

 a dried and somewhat mutilated specimen of the Sal. perspicillata,- Add, S. Sam, 

 Gosse. 



(3 J Sal. venenosa, Daud., or subviolacea, )>arton; Sal. fasciata, Green; Sal. 

 tigrina. Id.; Sal. erythronota. Id.; Sal. hilineata. Id.; Sal. rubra, Daud. VIII, 

 pi. 91, f. 2; S. variolata, Gilliam. Sc. Nat. Phil., I, pi. xviii, f. 1, and several new 

 species. The Sal. japonica, Houtuin, Bechst. trans, of Lacep., II, pi. 18, f. 1, is 

 closely allied to the erythronota. 



